Earnings Roundup: Coeur d’Alene Mines reports lower income

Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. reported lower third-quarter net income of $3.6 million on revenues of $52.9 million Friday.

The results compared to net income of $18.4 million on revenues of $50.6 million for the third quarter of 2006.

In a company news release, Chairman and CEO Dennis Wheeler said the firm’s San Bartolome silver mine in Bolivia remains on schedule for a February starting date. In other news, Coeur d’Alene Mines’ plans to acquire a Mexican silver mine through a $1.1 billion merger with an Australian and a Canadian firm is expected to close in mid-December, following a shareholder vote earlier in the month.

During the first nine months of the year, the company’s net income was $29.6 million, compared to net income of $65.3 million for the same period in 2006. The year-ago results included a one-time gain of $11.1 million from the sale of the company’s Galena Mine and Silver Valley operations.

“The operator of the New York Stock Exchange said Friday its third-quarter profit more than tripled as market volatility over the summer produced record volume.

NYSE Euronext, the product of the New York Stock Exchange’s April acquisition of European rival Euronext, saw earnings surge to $258 million, or 97 cents per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $68 million, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding costs such as those tied to the acquisitions of Euronext and Archipelago, as well as a gain on the sale of member firm regulatory functions, the company earned $202 million, or 76 cents per share.

Revenue jumped to $1.2 billion from $602 million a year ago, with 25 percent of total revenue generated by trading of derivatives, and 18 percent from European cash trading.

“Viacom Inc., a media conglomerate that owns MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures, reported an 80 percent jump in third-quarter earnings Friday on a strong showing from its summer movie “Transformers” and the sale of a music publishing business.

Viacom said it wouldn’t see a big affect in the event of a Hollywood writers’ strike, except for late-night spoof artists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, whose shows would go to reruns.

CEO Philippe Dauman told analysts on a conference call that the company’s Paramount studio had an ample pipeline of movies, but that the company would “evaluate” what to do in the time slots of Stewart’s and Colbert’s shows on Comedy Central if a strike occurs.

In addition to Paramount and Comedy Central, Viacom owns a large stable of cable channels including MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon. Like its former sister company CBS Corp., its shareholder vote is controlled by Sumner Redstone.

Viacom earned $641.6 million, or 96 cents per share, in the three months ending in September, up from $356.8 million, or 50 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

“Duke Energy Corp., one of the nation’s largest electric power companies, said Friday its third-quarter profit fell 20 percent, reflecting the spin-off of its natural gas operations.

But the Charlotte, N.C.-based company, which serves about 4 million customers in the Midwest and the Carolinas, said it expects to surpass its earnings target for the full year.

Its shares rose 21 cents to close at $19.03 Friday.

Duke earned $607 million, or 48 cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30, down from $763 million, or 60 cents per share, in the same period in 2006 when results included the natural gas unit.

“Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported a 64 percent jump in third-quarter profit Friday on strong investment gains.

Berkshire said it earned $4.55 billion, or $2,942 per share, during the quarter that ended Sept. 30. That’s up from last year’s third-quarter net income of $2.77 billion, or $1,797 per share.

Officials at Berkshire, which is led by billionaire Warren Buffett, typically do not comment on quarterly earnings reports. A spokeswoman said no one was available Friday to comment on the report.

Investment gains of $1.99 billion accounted for nearly half of Berkshire’s quarterly earnings.

Berkshire’s sale of its investment in Chinese oil conglomerate PetroChina may account for a significant portion of the company’s investment gains although not all of that happened during the quarter, said Andy Kilpatrick, the stockbroker-author of “Of Permanent Value, the Story of Warren Buffett.”

Berkshire started selling off its 2.3 billion shares of PetroChina sometime this summer and finished selling the last of them in October. Buffett has said in interviews that Berkshire made about $3.5 billion on the sale of that $488 million investment.