Aluminum titan Alcoa kicked off earnings season with better-than-expected quarterly results even as its revenue tumbled 11% and it faced higher energy and materials costs. 

After the closing bell on Tuesday, Alcoa said it earned 66 cents per share on $7.62 billion in sales. A year ago, Alcoa, which is one of the largest aluminum makers in the world, earned 81 cents on $8.1 billion in revenue.

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa said its earnings included a five-cent charge related to a gas pipeline explosion in Western Australia and power disruptions at its Rockdale, Texas smelter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had been looking for earnings of 64 cents on $7.36 billion in sales. 

The stock jumped 5% in after-hours trading after the results were officially announced. 

Alcoa’s results marked the beginning of the earnings season as the company is the first component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to post quarterly results.

Even though it topped estimates, Alcoa struggled to cash in on the rising price of aluminum as it faced tighter profit margins due to the rising cost of energy and raw materials like caustic soda. Aluminum prices have risen by less than 20% since the end of 2006 but crude oil has jumped 132% over that span, according to data provided by The Wall Street Journal.

The earnings beat may come as a surprise to shareholders as Alcoa’s stock did not participate in the triple-digit rally on the Dow on Tuesday, leading the decliners on the index. Also, analysts had been reducing their profit estimates on Alcoa in recent days, including one at Goldman Sachs (GS) on Tuesday.

Even with Tuesday’s decline, Alcoa’s stock has outperformed the broader market, tumbling almost 9% year-to-date. The Dow has lost more than 20% of its value in 2008, entering into a bear market.

Looking ahead, Wall Street analysts see Alcoa earning $2.68 a share in its full-year results, according to Thomson Reuters data. The company did not update its profit outlook in its earnings release on Tuesday.