Aol Revenues Up 40 Percent

America Online Inc. said it more than doubled its fourth quarter prof- its compared with last year, easily beating Wall Street estimates as revenues surged 40 percent.

The Dulles, Va.-based company on Thursday reported net earnings of $338 million, or 13 cents per share, for the quarter ended June 30. That is up 115 percent from $157 million, or 6 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial had pegged earnings at 11 cents per share.

“This has been a record-breaking year for America Online, and we finished on a strong note,” said AOL Chairman and CEO Steve Case.

Revenues for the quarter were $1.93 billion, up from $1.38 billion for the final quarter last year.

Advertising revenue nearly doubled to $609 million from $313 million for the year-ago period.

Revenue from subscriptions increased 26 percent to $1.2 billion.

During the past 12 months, the company added 5.6 million new members, including 992,000 in the latest three months. It added 5.1 million new members last year, including 755,000 in the final quarter.

In other Thursday reports:

Sterling Financial Corp. of Spokane announced second quarter earnings of $3.4 million, or 42 cents per share, for the period ended June 30. Results were up from $3.2 million for the same period a year ago.

For the first six months, Sterling reported net income of $6.7 million, or 82 cents a share, up from $6.1 million, or 74 cents a share, a year ago.

Sterling Financial is a savings and loan holding company that owns Sterling Savings Bank.

Calling it a very solid second quarter, Spokane-based Itron Inc. reported a net income of $876,000, or 6 cents a share, for the quarter ending June 30, up from a loss of $1.6 million for the same period a year ago.

Over six months, earnings were $2.7 million, or 18 cents a share, for the first and second quarters ending June 30, up from $1.8 million, or 12 cents a share, a year ago.

Itron, which provides the utility industry solutions for collecting, communicating and analyzing information about power, gas and water usage, cited low revenues in the company’s electric business but good momentum in the other sectors.

Attributing much to internally generated growth, United Security Bancorp reported a net income of $2 million for the quarter ended June 30 and $3.8 million for the first six months of the year.

Though the totals are down compared with the $2.9 million for the same quarter a year ago and $5 million for the first half of 1999, the comparison is difficult, said company president Wes Colley. He noted that 1999 had a one-time gain that came from selling the use of the Bank of the West name.

In the second quarter, the bank’s assets totaled $564.6 million, up 12 percent from $504.1 million a year ago. Loans rose 15 percent to $457.6 million from $399.6 million, and deposits rose 12 percent to $478.3 million from $428.8 million.

Helped by heavy demand for international deliveries, United Parcel Service Inc.’s second-quarter net income rose 18 percent to $695 million or 60 cents per share, in line with expectations.

For the three months ended June 30, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines earned $460 million, or $3.51 a share, compared with $364 million, or $2.40 a share in the year-ago period. The results be analyst forecasts.

Northwest Airlines reported net income of $115 million, or $1.26 a share, for the quarter ended June 30, beating analysts’ expectations despite a 62 percent hike in fuel costs.

Quaker Oats Co. rode strong sales of snacks and its ever-growing Gatorade product to a 10 percent gain in quarterly profits before special items, overcoming a slump in ready-to-eat cereals and flavored rice and pasta. The earnings report beat analysts’ expectations.

Including all one-time factors, Sprint Corp.’s second-quarter profits were $365 million, or 41 cents a share, down from a profit of $387 million, or 44 cents a share, a year ago.