Chrysler Exceeds Expectations

Chrysler Corp. reported surprisingly high first-quarter earnings Tuesday, more than doubling last year’s results on robust sales of high-profit minivans, sport utility vehicles and pickups.

Chrysler Chairman Robert Eaton said the prospect for the second quarter also looked good. The company increased this year’s domestic sales forecast slightly and said April sales were running about 20 to 25 percent ahead of last year.

Rosy profit news from Chrysler and other blue-chip companies exceeded Wall Street expectations, helping extend the stock market’s recovery from last week’s sell-off.

Chrysler earned just over $1 billion, or $2.64 a share, from January through March, compared with $496 million, or $1.33 a share, in the first three months of 1995. Revenue rose 10 percent to $15 billion from $13.6 billion a year ago.

“It was a terrific quarter,” said industry analyst Joe Phillippi of Lehman Brothers in New York. “The bottom-line driver was clearly trucks, whether it’s minivans, Jeeps or Ram pickups.”

Light truck sales were up 20 percent in the first quarter from the year-ago period, increasing Chrysler’s market share in that category to 22.8 percent from 20.2 percent last year. Car sales remained flat.

The earnings total set a first-quarter record for the No. 3 domestic automaker, surpassing the $938 million earned in the first three months of 1994. The company’s pretax earnings of $1.67 billion were the highest in that category for any quarter in its history.

In other earnings reports:

Weyerhaeuser Co. on Tuesday followed the footsteps of other big paper companies that recently have reported sharp drops in earnings due to plunging pulp and paper prices.

The Federal Way-based company reported first-quarter net income of $142 million, or 72 cents per share - a 31 percent drop from $207 million, or $1 per share, for the first three months of 1995.

Net sales were $2.6 billion, down 3 percent from the $2.7 billion recorded for the comparable 1995 quarter.

“Our 1996 first-quarter results reflected rapidly declining prices for most pulp, paper and packaging products and significantly lower wood-products prices compared to year-ago levels,” said John Creighton, Weyerhaeuser president and chief executive officer.

Wells Fargo & Co. said its earnings rose 22 percent to $264 million, or $5.39 a share, from $233 million, or $4.41 a share, a year earlier.

The per-share results were higher than expectations of $5.31 a share.

The bank wrote off $113 million, or 1.3 percent, of total loans. The largest category of net charge-offs was $81 million for credit card loans.

Wells Fargo merged with First Interstate Bancorp earlier this year but reported First Interstate’s earnings separately. First Interstate lost $22.5 million, or 39 cents a share, compared with earnings of $212 million, or $2.66 a share, a year earlier.

Chase Manhattan Corp., the nation’s largest banking company, lost $89 million because of the one-time $1.65 billion cost of the Chemical Banking Corp. merger, finalized March 31. Excluding that cost, earnings rose 44 percent to $937 million, or $1.98 a share, from $650 million, or $1.37 a share, the year before.

Chase set aside more money as a cushion against risky loans. The bank also said it had written off approximately 4.6 percent of its credit-card loans.

Intel Corp. said Monday that it earned $894 million, or $1.02 per share, in the quarter that ended March 30. It earned $889 million, or $1.02 per share, in the same period a year ago.

Revenue was $4.64 billion, up from $3.56 billion a year ago.

The performance slightly exceeded expectations of Wall Street analysts, who had forecast a profit of 99 cents per share. A portion of the difference, 2 cents, was attributed to a lower tax rate than anticipated.

Olivetti said Tuesday it lost 1.59 trillion lire, or $1.01 billion, in 1995 as restructuring charges added to operational difficulties.

Olivetti had 1.12 trillion lire, $713 million, in restructuring charges for the year. Revenue rose 8.4 percent to 9.84 trillion lire $6.2 billion.

The company lost 679 billion lire, $432 million, in 1994.

Olivetti, whose North American operations are based at Liberty Lake, noted its personal computer business, which showed a heavy loss in 1995, had a profit in February and March this year.