Motorola earnings quadruple

Motorola Inc., the largest U.S. cell phone maker, more than quadrupled its third-quarter earnings to $479 million thanks largely to new handsets that helped boost its sales by a whopping 26 percent.

The results reported Tuesday slightly outpaced analysts’ expectations and marked a third consecutive quarter of strong sales and profit gains for the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company. But its stock fell sharply in after-hours trading amid investor concerns about slowing growth in the fourth quarter.

Net earnings for the July-through-September quarter were $479 million, or 20 cents per share, compared with $116 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier. That was a penny per share better than the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Revenues were $8.62 billion, up from $6.83 billion a year ago and about what Wall Street anticipated.

• Safeway Inc.’s third-quarter profit shrank by 21 percent as the supermarket giant continued to absorb financial aftershocks from a devastating strike in Southern California earlier this year that it said could haunt the company next year, too.

The Pleasanton-based grocer said Tuesday that it earned $159.2 million, or 35 cents per share, for the three months ended Sept. 11. That contrasted with net income of $202.5 million, or 45 cents per share, at the same time last year.

Revenue for the period totaled $8.3 billion, an uptick from $8.28 billion last year.

Safeway’s shares fell 41 cents Tuesday to close at $18.37 on the New York Stock Exchange.

• A reduced forecast for Boise Cascade Corp.’s office product business overshadowed better-than-expected third quarter results on Tuesday, sending the company’s stock down 11 percent.

The decline came just weeks before Boise Cascade expects to close a $3.7 billion deal that will transform it into an office supply business, and take it out of the timber and paper business.

For the three months ending Sept. 30, Boise Cascade posted a profit of $61.1 million, or 63 cents per share, for the three months through Sept. 30. That compared to a profit of $30 million, or 43 cents a share, a year ago.

• Buoyed again by strong results at its financial services arm, Ford Motor Co. swung to a profit of $266 million in the third quarter even though the loss at its worldwide automotive operations widened and its market share in the key U.S. market fell by more than a percentage point.

The nation’s second biggest auto company raised its full-year earnings guidance slightly on Tuesday, primarily because of better-than-expected results at the financial business, Ford Motor Credit Co.

Ford earned 15 cents a share in the July-September quarter compared with a loss of $25 million, or 1 cent a share, a year ago.

• U.S. Bancorp reported Tuesday that improved credit quality and growth in fee-based products and services helped drive up third-quarter earnings by 12 percent.

The results of almost $1.07 billion, or 56 cents per share, matched the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. During the same period last year, the company earned $950.9 million, or 49 cents per share.

Total revenue was $3.31 billion in the July-September period, up 10 percent from $3 billion during the same period last year.

On Tuesday, U.S. Bancorp shares fell 99 cents, or 3.4 percent, to close at $28.45 on the New York Stock Exchange.

• Wells Fargo & Co.’s profit rose by 12 percent, but the results didn’t live up to analysts’ expectations as the home mortgage refinancing boom cooled off.

The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that it earned $1.74 billion, or $1.02 per share, during the July-September period compared with $1.56 billion, or 92 cents per share, a year earlier.

Although the results extended a 12-quarter streak of double-digit earnings growth for Wells, Wall Street had set its sights higher. The mean analyst estimate was $1.06 per share, according to Thomson First Call.

Wells’ shares dropped 80 cents Tuesday to close at $59.35 on the New York Stock Exchange.

• McDonald’s Corp. reported a 42 percent jump in third-quarter profits Tuesday as its turnaround continued at full speed well into a second year, fueled by a U.S. sales boom.

A fast-food juggernaut again on its home turf, the company benefited from longer U.S. restaurant hours, higher-priced new menu items, the “I’m lovin’ it” ad campaign and accepting payment from customers via credit and debit cards.

For the July-through-September quarter, the company earned $778 million, or 61 cents a share, up from $547 million, or 43 cents a share, a year earlier. That matched its estimate from last Wednesday when it disclosed that results would be much stronger than Wall Street expected.

Revenues were up 9 percent to $4.9 billion from $4.5 billion a year earlier.

• Continental Airlines Inc. reported a $16 million third-quarter loss on Tuesday, and said it expects to report losses in 2004 and in 2005 unless conditions improve.

The nation’s fifth-largest airline said high fuel prices and government regulation contributed to its quarterly loss of 24 cents per share.

Excluding $22 million in special charges related to retirement of leased MD-80 aircraft, the Houston-based airline earned $6 million, or 8 cents per share, for the three months ending Sept. 30. That compared favorably to the mean estimate of a 17-cent per share loss expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.