Despite Decline, Kellogg Sees A Prosperous Future

Kellogg Co. reported Friday its first-quarter earnings fell 26 percent, but the cereal maker, trying to regain lost market share, pointed to an increase in sales as an indicator of future growth.

Kellogg said that excluding one-time charges, it earned $144.4 million, or 36 cents a share, compared with $170.7 million, or 42 cents a share, for the same period last year.

In other reports:

Mobil Corp. reported its first-quarter earnings fell 34 percent, the result of depressed crude prices that have eroded profits for most oil companies.

The nation’s second-largest oil company, which plans to merge with Exxon Corp., said it earned $464 million, or 58 cents per share, down from $705 million, or 86 cents per share, in the first quarter of 1998.

Mobil beat the expectations of Wall Street analysts who predicted it would earn 54 cents per share, according to First Call Corp.

Gateway said strong sales domestically and in its Asia-Pacific markets helped the computer maker earn $99.6 million in the first quarter, up 31 percent from the same period a year ago.

The earnings reported Thursday worked out to 62 cents per share, topping the 60 cents predicted by analysts surveyed by First Call Corp.

RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp.’s underlying profit skidded 54 percent in the first quarter due to tobacco lawsuit settlement expenses and the fallout from last year’s price hikes.

The owner of the nation’s second-biggest tobacco company, led by its Camel and Winston brands, said it lost ground in the U.S. cigarette market even as industry leader Philip Morris Cos. Inc. gained.

Historically low copper prices contributed to Asarco’s net losses of $35.3 million during the first quarter of 1999, company officials said.

Copper is currently at 64 cents per pound. On an inflation-adjusted basis, copper prices are at the lowest level in Asarco’s 100-year history, said Chairman Richard de J. Osborne.

First quarter losses amounted to 89 cents per common share, compared with losses of 80 cents per common share, or $31.8 million, in the first quarter of 1998.

Sales were also down. First quarter sales were $475.3 million, compared with last year’s first quarter sales of $614.5 million.

Asarco owns the Coeur and Galena mines in the Silver Valley through a joint venture with Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. The company has also proposed opening a silver and copper mine upstream from Lake Pend Oreille in Noxon, Mont.