Big writedown hurts BHP’s earnings

Article Excerpt

BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs $32 (New York symbol BHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $51.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www. bhpbilliton.com) is a leading producer of iron ore, oil and natural gas, copper and coal. It operates in Australia, the U.S., U.K., Chile and South Africa. Due to weak commodity prices, BHP wrote down the value of its U.S. oil properties by $4.9 billion. It also set aside $2.2 billion to cover cleanup costs related to a dam burst at its Samarco iron ore mine in Brazil; BHP owns 50% of this mine; Vale SA owns the other 50% and operates the project. If you disregard these charges, BHP earned $1.2 billion, or $0.46 per ADR, in the year ended June 30, 2016. That’s down 81.1% from $6.4 billion, or $2.41 per ADR, in fiscal 2015. Each American Depositary Receipt represents two BHP common shares. The company continues…