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A.M. Castle (CAS) reported a 1Q loss of $(0.19)/share, which adjusted to a profit of $0.29/share after adjustments, beating the Street’s $0.24/share and well above 4Q’s adjusted $0.05/share.

Guidance was for 2012 sales for the company’s legacy businesses and Tube Supply to each grow 10% from 2011 levels, with consolidated gross margins comparable to 1Q’s 27.3%.  CAS acknowledged that it was more cautious in its outlook than a few months ago, and overall expectations on the high-side have “dampened a bit.”

After starting the year off “quite robustly,” management said that over the past six weeks business has softened, which the company attributed to a build-up of inventories throughout the supply chain in most markets, as CAS has not seen any signs of decreased customer activity.

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