NewMarket Corporation (NYSE:NEU) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 25, 2024 3:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Bill Skrobacz - Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Operator
Greetings. Welcome to NewMarket Corporation's Conference Call and Webcast to review First Quarter 2024 Financial Results. At this time, all participants are placed on a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded.
I will now turn the conference over to your host, Bill Skrobacz, Vice President and CFO at NewMarket Corporations. Bill you may begin.
Bill Skrobacz
Thank you, Paul, and thanks to everyone for joining me this afternoon. As a reminder some of the statements made during this conference call may be forward-looking. Relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements are contained in our earnings release and in our SEC filings including our most recent Form 10-K.
During this call, I will also discuss the non-GAAP financial measures included in our earnings release. The earnings release, which can be found on our website includes a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures. We filed our 10-Q this morning. It contains significantly more details on the operations and performance of our company. Please take time to review it. I will be referring to the data that was included in last night's earnings release.
Net income for the first quarter of 2024 was $108 million or $11.23 a share compared to net income or $98 million or $10.09 a share for the first quarter of last year. Petroleum additives sales for the first three months of 2024 were $677 million, compared to $700 million for the same period in 2023.
Petroleum additives operating profit for the first quarter was $151 million, compared to $132 million for the first quarter of 2023. The increase was mainly due to lower raw material and operating costs, partially offset by lower selling prices and product mix.
Shipments increased 5% between quarterly periods with increases in both lubricant additives and fuel additive shipments across all regions except Latin America, which reported a decrease in lubricant additive shipments in North America, which reported a decrease in fuel additive shipments.
We're pleased with the strong performance of our petroleum additives business during the first quarter of 2024. It is the sixth consecutive quarter with operating profit over $100 million. We are seeing evidence that our efforts to control operating costs are taking hold. Throughout 2024, managing our operating costs, our inventory levels and our portfolio profitability while continuing our investment in technology will remain priorities.