Compass Minerals’ third-quarter results include continued year-over-year improvement in the company’s Salt business. Modest gains are reported in the Plant Nutrition North America segment, which offset weakness in its Plant Nutrition South America segment.

The company reported a third quarter 2019 net earnings of $10.6 million, or $0.31 per diluted share. This is compared to $12.8 million, or $0.37 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2018. Excluding executive transitions costs of $1.7 million (net of taxes), net earnings were $12.3 million, or $0.36 per diluted share.

“While our Salt business delivered year-over-year growth, these results were below our internal expectations primarily due to unplanned downtime and other unusual costs. Our Plant Nutrition businesses worked hard to buck the challenging agriculture market conditions with some success in North America, while Brazil agriculture sales have been slow to materialize this season,” said Kevin Crutchfield, president and CEO. “We are currently evaluating and finalizing an enterprise-wide optimization plan designed to maximize the value of our existing assets and businesses, and expect to provide additional details of the plan in early 2020. As we execute and deliver on that plan, we expect meaningful improvements in our financial results, enabling us to re-examine our long-term strategy.”

Additional details can be found in the press release and third quarter business update in the Investor Relations section of our website.