Coal miner Peabody 1Q earnings slide

ST. LOUIS — Coal miner Peabody Energy Corp. says its profit slid in the first three months of the year on lower U.S. shipments and prices for its Australian coal. But the results still beat Wall Street’s expectations.

The world’s biggest private-sector coal company said Thursday that its net loss attributable to common shareholders was $23.4 million, or a loss of 9 cents per share. That compares to a profit of $172.7 million, or 63 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding special charges, the St. Louis-based company’s loss was 5 cents per share.

Revenue fell 14 percent to $1.75 billion.

On average, analysts polled by FactSet expected a loss of 13 cents per share on revenue of $1.78 billion.

Peabody shares rose 59 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $19.61 in premarket trading.