Itron posts increased quarter earnings

Spokane-based Itron posted strong quarterly results Tuesday and revised its full-year outlook, citing steady demand for its products from utilities.

The company posted first-quarter net income of $817,000, or 4 cents a share, compared with a loss of $738,000, or 4 cents a share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

Revenues increased to $116.5 million from $65.6 million in the first quarter of 2004. Much of that increase is associated with Itron’s acquisition of Schlumberger’s electricity metering division, completed last July.

Itron produces metering units and software for the water, gas and electric utility industries.

As a result of increased orders, Itron is now forecasting 2005 sales between $510 million and $520 million, an increase from previous guidance of $505 million to $515 million.

It raised its earnings-per-share guidance to between $1.50 and $1.55 from $1.40 to $1.45.

Economic development meeting set for Friday

Bonners Ferry, Idaho

Roger Madsen, director of Idaho’s Commerce and Labor Department, will meet with members of the local community Friday to discuss ways the department can help with economic development issues over the next year.

The 2 p.m. event is free, but seating is limited to 50 people. To reserve a spot, call Robin Ponsness at the Boundary County Development Council, (208) 267-0352, or e-mail her at rponsness@bonnersferry.id.gov. The meeting will be held at the Bonners Ferry Fire Hall, at Arizona and First streets.

More than 200 people in Boundary and Bonner counties recently lost their jobs when CEDU schools abruptly shut down on March 25. The schools were Boundary County’s largest private employer. CEDU’s parent company has since filed for bankruptcy protection.

Merck shareholders blame execs for failings

Merck shareholders, who have seen their stock plummet since the company withdrew its blockbuster pain medicine Vioxx from the market, used their annual meeting Tuesday to criticize executives.

“I don’t blame you for the Vioxx situation, but in America you get paid for success and not for trying,” said William Steiner, a shareholder from Piermont, N.Y., who called for new top management at the company.

About 900 shareholders gathered for the meeting at a New Jersey community college. Besides levying criticism over Vioxx, some stockholders also called for an end to the company testing on animals and for separating the job of CEO from that of chairman of the board. Neither proposal passed.

The Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company pulled Vioxx from the market last fall after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients using the arthritis drug for more than 18 months.

The company pulled Vioxx, whose $2.5 billion in annual sales equaled 11 percent of Merck revenues, from the market on Sept. 30. Merck shares, trading at $60 as recently as June 2003, plunged $12 to $33 that day, wiping out $28 billion of stock value for individual investors, pension funds and mutual funds. Analysts have estimated Merck’s liability for Vioxx at $4 billion to $30 billion.