Alpha Natural Resources Falls 7.8% (ANR)

Shares of Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. ANR ended the Friday trading session down 7.8% at $59.04 per share. The company announced on Friday before the market opened that its cost of coal sales in the East for fiscal year 2010 are expected to be in the range of $60.50 to $61.50 per ton, which is above the previous forecast of $57.00 to $58.50 per ton. The company also said that it is revising its 2011 guidance for shipments, average realizations and costs of coal sales per ton. CEO Kevin Crutchfield said, "Looking forward to 2011, the recent flooding in Queensland, Australia has significantly strengthened the market for metallurgical coal. In this environment, we anticipate that Alpha will be able to increase its 2011 metallurgical coal shipments to a range of 13.0 million tons to 14.5 million tons, compared to our previous guidance of 11.5 million tons to 13.5 million tons. As a leading supplier and exporter of metallurgical coal in the United States, Alpha expects to benefit from the combination of a strong seaborne metallurgical coal market and increased metallurgical shipments. Consequently, Alpha expects to deliver record financial results in 2011, following a record year in 2010." The day's range for shares of Alpha Natural Resources, Inc was between $58.89 and $62.65 per share. The average price target of analysts who cover Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. (ANR) is $67.00 per share. Volume of 9.5 million shares was more than triple the daily average volume of 2.9 million shares. Alpha Natural Resources, Inc is one of America's premier coal suppliers with coal production capacity of greater than 90 million tons a year. Among U.S. producers Alpha is the leading supplier and exporter of metallurgical coal used in the steel-making process and is a major supplier of thermal coal to electric utilities and manufacturing industries across the country. Read more from Benzinga's Company news.