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Earnings roundup: Profits soar at Boeing

New Kodak digital cameras are showcased at the Kodak booth at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last month. Eastman Kodak Co. posted its first quarterly profit in more than two years as it enters the final stretch of a tough transformation into a digital photography and commercial printing company. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
From Staff and Wire Reports The Spokesman-Review
New Kodak digital cameras are showcased at the Kodak booth at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last month. Eastman Kodak Co. posted its first quarterly profit in more than two years as it enters the final stretch of a tough transformation into a digital photography and commercial printing company. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Record-setting commercial airplane sales and a strong defense business helped Boeing Co. smash Wall Street forecasts as the airplane maker delivered a fourth-quarter profit that was more than double its earnings of a year ago.

The company also predicted two more years of solid growth, sending Boeing shares up more than 4 percent in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Chicago-based company raised its own forecast for 2007 by 10 cents, saying it expected to earn between $4.55 and $4.75 per share on revenue between $64.5 billion and $65 billion.

Boeing expanded margins and revenue growth would help it earn between $5.55 and $5.75 per share in 2008.

For the quarter ending Dec. 31, the airplane maker’s net income was $989 million, or $1.29 per share — more than double its $460 million profit during the same period last year.

Excluding charges, one-time items and other tax gains, Chicago-based Boeing said its adjusted earnings per share for the quarter were $1.16. Fourth-quarter revenue climbed 26 percent to $17.5 billion, surpassing Wall Street expectations.

On average, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected the world’s No. 2 commercial airplane maker to earn 98 cents per share on $16.5 billion in revenue.

Boeing booked 1,044 net orders for new commercial planes in 2006, a record that raised its year-end backlog by 22 percent to $250 billion.

“Spokane-based Key Tronic Corp.’s second-quarter earnings fell 66 percent in large part due to $940,000 in unpaid inventory and receivables related to the bankruptcy of an undisclosed customer, the company said Wednesday.

Key Tronic provides contract manufacturing services and prototyping for other companies. |Its customer’s December bankruptcy left Key Tronic reporting second quarter earnings of $345,000, or 3 cents a share, compared with $1.02 million, or 10 cents a share, a year earlier.

The receivables and inventory charge cut earnings by 9 cents a share, the company said.

“Starbucks Corp. said Wednesday its fiscal first-quarter profit climbed nearly 18 percent on a record number of store openings and ramped-up breakfast and lunch offerings.

For the 13 weeks ended Dec. 31, the world’s largest specialty coffee retailer posted net earnings of $205 million, or 26 cents a share, compared with $174 million, or 22 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting profit of $202.6 million, or 26 cents per share.

The Seattle-based company said comparable-store sales, those at stores open at least a year, grew 6 percent for the quarter, which includes the holiday sales period.

Starbucks also said it opened a quarterly record of 728 retail stores, and it reaffirmed its fiscal-year target of at least 2,400 more stores around the world.

“After wading through a river of red ink for two years, Eastman Kodak Co. finally hauled in a modest profit in the fourth quarter. For the first time, it also generated more earnings from digital photography and commercial printing than from its storied film business.

The world’s top maker of photographic film earned $16 million, or 6 cents a share, in the October-December period.

That compared to a year-ago loss of $46 million, or 16 cents a share, when Kodak took hefty charges linked to its mammoth, four-year digital overhaul, which it aims to wrap up this year.

Sales fell 9 percent to $3.821 billion from $4.197 billion largely because of its emphasis on improving digital profit margins, such as focusing more on the higher-end camera market.

“Google Inc.’s fourth-quarter profit nearly tripled amid another burst of breathtaking growth that enabled the online search leader to sprint past analyst expectations — a habit that has helped propel its stock price above $500.

The Mountain View-based company said Wednesday that it earned $1.03 billion, or $3.29 per share, during the final three months of 2006. That compared with net income of $372.2 million, or $1.22 per share, at the same time in 2005.

If not for expenses for employee stock compensation and gains from tax benefits, Google said it would have earned $3.18 per share. That figure easily beat the average analyst estimate of $2.92 per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.