Wireless services boost Verizon
A 25 percent surge in the sale of wireless services helped boost second-quarter profit five times higher at Verizon Communications Inc., the nation’s largest telecom company. The results beat Wall Street’s expectations.
The New York-based company said Tuesday that it earned $1.8 billion, or 64 cents a share, up from $338 million, or 12 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $17.84 billion, compared with $16.83 billion a year before.
Analysts polled by Thomson First Call had been expecting earnings of 60 cents a share.
Verizon shares closed up $1.36, or 3.7 percent, at $37.86 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Cost cutting helped the company wring more profits from revenues that were up 6 percent. Verizon cut 14,000 jobs in the past year. More than 21,000 workers accepted a voluntary retirement package in the fourth quarter that cost nearly $3 billion; but the company added jobs, mostly in the wireless segment, offsetting those losses.
Verizon has said it hopes to cut $1 billion a year from its expenses in coming years.
The company’s revenue mix shifted, with more than half its revenues coming from wireless, long-distance and broadband.
• Fighting a return to bankruptcy, US Airways Group Inc. said Tuesday its second-quarter earnings more than doubled, though the company’s top executive predicted more losses for the second half of the year.
The Arlington-based airline on Tuesday reported net income of $34 million, or 59 cents a share, in the quarter ended June 30. That compared to a profit of $13 million, or 25 cents a share, in the year-ago period, due to government aid.
• DuPont’s net income dropped 25 percent in the second quarter, reflecting the costs of an ongoing $900 million restructuring plan, the company said Tuesday.
Net income for the quarter totaled $503 million, or 50 cents per share, down from $675 million, or 67 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2003, the Wilmington-based chemical company said.
Before one-time items, second quarter earnings totaled 80 cents per share, up from 62 cents per share last year but falling just short of the mean estimate of 81 cents per share by analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.
The results overshadowed DuPont’s announcement that it was increasing its earnings forecast for the year from between $2.10 and $2.30 per share to between $2.25 and $2.35 per share, excluding special items.
Dupont shares rose 41 cents to close at $42.31 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
• Lockheed Martin Corp. said Tuesday that a surge in combat aircraft sales helped push earnings up 22 percent in the second quarter, overshadowing higher pension costs and beating Wall Street expectations for the defense giant.
The company earned $296 million, or 66 cents per share, for the quarter, up from $242 million, or 54 cents per share, at the same time a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had predicted Lockheed would earn 61 cents per share.
Lockheed reported second-quarter sales of $8.78 billion, a 14 percent increase over last year’s second-quarter figure of $7.71 billion that was mostly attributable to higher sales of fighter jets.
“We thought it was one of the best quarters we’ve had in a while,” said Christopher Kubasik, Lockheed’s chief financial officer.
The company’s aeronautics division, which produces combat aircraft and transport planes, saw a 31 percent spike in sales. Driving that growth was Lockheed’s F-16 fighter jet program, which delivered 22 planes in the second quarter compared with 12 in the second quarter of 2003.
• U.S. Steel Corp. second-quarter profits surged on rising demand, higher steel prices and increased sales driven by its acquisition of National Steel last year, the company said Tuesday.
The nation’s largest integrated steelmaker reported net income of $211 million, or $1.62 per share, for the period ending June 30, compared with losses of $49 million, or 51 cents per share, a year earlier.
Revenues for U.S. Steel were up 47 percent to $3.47 billion on the quarter.
• Safeway Inc.’s second-quarter profit dipped 4 percent in the aftermath of a corrosive Southern California strike that alienated many of the struggling supermarket giant’s employees and customers.
The nation’s third largest grocer said Tuesday that it earned $155.2 million, or 35 cents per share, in the three month ended June 19, down from $161 million, or 36 cents per share, at the same time last year.
Sales for the period totaled $8.36 billion, a 1 percent improvement from $8.25 billion last year.
The earnings per share fell 2 cents below the mean estimate among analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. That seemed to disappoint investors, as Safeway’s shares fell 67 cents, or 3 percent, to close at $21.20 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.