Yahoo sees earnings drop for quarter
Online search engine operator Yahoo Inc. said Tuesday its third-quarter earnings declined slightly as rising operating expenses overshadowed an increase in revenue.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Yahoo earned $151.3 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with $158.5 million, or 11 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
The company’s revenue for the period totaled $1.77 billion, compared with $1.58 billion in the same quarter last year.
The results beat expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who, on average, expected earnings of 8 cents per share on revenue of $1.24 billion.
Grocery chain operator Supervalu Inc. said Tuesday its profit rose 12 percent in its second quarter as lower costs offset a 5 percent drop in sales.
Supervalu shares rose $1.73, or 4.9 percent, to $36.97 in morning trading Tuesday. Net income for the quarter ended Sept. 8 grew to $148 million, or 69 cents per share, from $132 million, or 61 cents per share, a year ago.
Excluding costs related to its $11.4 billion acquisition of Albertsons retail properties in June 2006, the company earned 74 cents per share in the latest quarter, compared with 65 cents a year earlier.
Strength in services and software overcame a slide in hardware and helped IBM Corp.‘s third-quarter earnings rise 6 percent, enough to beat Wall Street expectations Tuesday.
From July through September, IBM earned $2.36 billion, or $1.68 per share, surpassing the profit of $2.22 billion and $1.45 per share that the Armonk, N.Y.-based technology company posted in the same quarter of 2006.
Earnings per share rose at a much steeper rate than net profit because IBM’s aggressive stock buyback plan has taken 130 million shares out of circulation in the past 12 months.
Revenue in the third quarter rose 7 percent to $24.1 billion from $22.6 billion a year ago.
IBM shares gained $1.57, or 1.3 percent, to close at $119.60 before the earnings report was released.
Health care products maker Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday its third-quarter profit fell about 8 percent because of a charge for cutting jobs and lower sales of top sellers, including stents and a key drug hurt by safety issues.
J&J earned $2.55 billion, or 88 cents per share, in the July-September period compared with $2.76 billion, or 94 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue rose to $14.97 billion from $13.29 billion, helped by strong results in international markets.
In July, J&J said it would reduce its global work force by up to 4 percent – up to 4,820 jobs – to cut costs due to slumping sales of heart stents and its No. 2 drug, anemia treatment Procrit, plus looming patent expirations.
Intel Corp., the world’s largest semiconductor maker, said Tuesday its third-quarter earnings rose 43 percent as strong demand for notebook computers drove sales of the company’s microprocessors.
Net income for the quarter ended Sept. 29 grew to $1.86 billion, or 31 cents per share, from $1.30 billion, or 22 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue climbed 15 percent to $10.09 billion from $8.74 billion in the prior-year period.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 30 cents per share on revenue of $9.62 billion.
Seagate Technology, the world’s largest maker of hard drives, on Tuesday reported a stronger-than-expected profit for its fiscal first quarter, as demand drove sales up 18 percent.
Net income for the quarter ended Sept. 28 grew to $355 million, or 64 cents per share, from $19 million, or 3 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding about $30 million of amortization and other charges associated with the Maxtor and EVault acquisitions, the company earned 69 cents per share in the latest period.
Revenue climbed to $3.29 billion from $2.79 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting a profit of 64 cents per share on revenue of $3.22 billion.