Anheuser-Busch Matches Earnings Expectations

Higher prices and continued strong beer sales helped push the profits of Anheuser-Busch Cos. up 13 percent in the fourth quarter, matching Wall Street expectations.

The world’s largest brewery said Thursday it earned $190.6 million, or 41 cents a share, in the October-December period, compared with $168.6 million, or 35 cents a share, a year earlier.

The earnings matched the expectation of analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial.

In other reports

Source Capital Corp. announced a 42 percent increase in net income for 1999 compared with 1998.

Earnings rose to $1.1 million, or 66 cents a diluted share, from $745,000, or 50 cents per diluted share, the prior year.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, net income was $259,000, or 16 cents a share, compared with $238,000, or 15 cents a share, for the same period in 1998.

Net loans and receivables climbed 4.9 percent to $57.1 million. Assets increased to $61.1 million at year end, up from $58.6 million.

D. Michael Jones, president of the Spokane-based commercial lender, said asset quality improved along with earnings in 1999.

But balance sheet growth disappointed because of loan prepayments and the mid-year departures of two key lease originators, he said.

Fourth quarter and year-end funds from operations were up for JP Realty, the Salt Lake City-based real estate investment trust that owns the Spokane Valley Mall, NorthTown and Silver Lake Mall.

In the fourth quarter of 1999, funds from operations - the measure used for REITs - increased by 8 percent to $15 million, from $13.9 million for the fourth quarter of 1998. Quarterly revenues rose 13 percent from the same year-ago period, to $36,440,000, and net income fell 7 percent, from $7.9 million in the fourth quarter of 1998 to $7.4 million in the same 1999 quarter. Quarterly earnings per diluted share were 43 cents, down from 45 cents in 1998.

For all of 1999, funds from operations rose 7 percent to $53.8 million, from $50.4 million in 1998. Revenues rose from $109 million in 1998 to $133.6 million in 1999. Net income dropped from $27.95 million in 1998 to $25.3 million. Diluted shares earned $1.44 in 1999, down 15 cents from 1998.

JP Realty attributed part of its gain in funds from operation to its purchase of NorthTown in August 1998 and the continued lease growth of the Spokane Valley Mall.

Colgate-Palmolive Co. said its profits rose 11 percent in the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street forecasts.

Strong advertising growth and lower newsprint costs drove fourth-quarter profits sharply higher at The New York Times Co., the company reported Thursday.

Excluding one-time gains and losses, earnings rose 24 percent to $108.4 million, or 61 cents per share, compared with $87.3 million, or 47 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.