Earnings roundup: Washington Mutual overcomes housing slump

Washington Mutual Inc., the nation’s biggest savings and loan, said Wednesday its second-quarter profits rose 8 percent, with record growth in its retail banking, credit card and commercial businesses and improved results in home lending.

The company expects its home loans group, which has struggled amid the downturn in the national housing market, to return to profitability by the end of the year, chairman and chief executive Kerry Killinger said.

For the three months ended June 30, the Seattle-based thrift said net income was $830 million, or 92 cents a share, compared with $767 million, or 79 cents per share, for the same period last year.

Revenue for the latest quarter, including net interest income and noninterest income, was $3.79 billion, up 4 percent from $3.64 billion last year.

Shares of Washington Mutual closed down 75 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $41.61 on Wednesday. The company’s stock has traded from $38.73 to $46.79 per share over the past 52 weeks.

“Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. said Wednesday its second-quarter profit fell 48 percent year-over-year, hurt by the loss of patent exclusivity for its Zoloft and Norvasc drugs and by sluggish sales of blockbuster cholesterol drug, Lipitor, in the U.S.

Despite that, Pfizer reaffirmed its guidance for 2007 and 2008 financial results.

Net income slid to $1.27 billion, or 18 cents per share, from $2.42 billion, or 33 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding items, adjusted profit fell 20 percent to $2.94 billion, or 42 cents per share, from $3.66 billion, or 50 cents per share, a year ago.

Latest-quarter results include payments to Bristol-Myers Squibb for their partnership to develop and market the cardiovascular drug apixaban.

“Second-quarter earnings at International Business Machines Corp. rose 12 percent and beat Wall Street forecasts Wednesday, largely on the strength of IBM’s software division and improvement in its services unit.

From April through June, the Armonk, N.Y.-based technology bellwether earned $2.26 billion, $1.55 per share, on revenue of $23.8 billion.

In the comparable period last year, IBM earned $2.02 billion, $1.30 per share, on revenue of $21.9 billion.

This year’s quarterly numbers were boosted $81 million, or 5 cents per share, from the sale of IBM’s printing division to Ricoh Co. Without that gain, IBM would have seen net profit rise 8 percent, and it would have earned $1.50 per share. That beat the estimate of $1.47 expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

“Delta Air Lines Inc., the nation’s third-largest carrier, cited a 5.5 percent gain in sales as it reported Wednesday that it swung to a profit in the second quarter, which saw it emerge from bankruptcy after shaving billions of dollars in costs.

The Atlanta-based company’s results beat Wall Street expectations when one-time items are excluded.

For the three months ending June 30, Delta said it recorded net income of $1.77 billion, or $4.49 a share, compared to a loss of $2.21 billion in the same period a year earlier. The corresponding per-share figure for the year-ago loss was not provided in Delta’s balance sheet.

Excluding reorganization and related one-time items, Delta said it had a profit of $274 million, or 70 cents a share, in the second quarter. On a comparable basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting a profit of 59 cents a share.

“Altria Group Inc., owner of the Philip Morris cigarette companies, said Wednesday that second-quarter income fell more than 18 percent but also reported a rise in profit from continuing operations and revenue.

Net income for the second quarter dropped 18.3 percent to $2.22 billion, or $1.05 a share, from $2.71 billion, or $1.29 per share, in the same period last year.