Weyerhaeuser earnings almost double on higher sales

Weyerhaeuser Co., one of the nation’s largest forest products companies, reported Thursday that first-quarter earnings nearly doubled on higher sales and fewer legal and restructuring costs. The company also raised its quarterly dividend by 25 percent.

The company earned $239 million, or 98 cents per share, up from $121 million, or 54 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding items such as legal settlements, restructuring and asset sales, the company’s earnings would have been $1.03 per share in the latest period, up from 62 cents per share in the 2004 first quarter.

Revenue grew 10 percent to $5.55 billion from $5.04 billion, as sales increased across business units. Favorable foreign exchange rates contributed $13 million.

However, analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for profit of $1.14 per share on sales of $5.68 billion.

The company said its core timberland and real estate businesses contributed most significantly to the first-quarter profit jump, though both units posted earnings below fourth-quarter results. Weyerhaeuser said timberlands earnings fell $17 million from the fourth quarter, mostly because of lower sales of non-strategic timberlands. Real estate profit was down from the fourth quarter because of seasonally lower single-family home closings.

• EBay Inc. became one of the world’s biggest e-commerce companies because of its phenomenal popularity in the United States, Germany and other wealthy countries.

But executives at the San Jose-based online auction powerhouse acknowledged this week that they’ll have a hard time getting new customers in mature markets, and they say they’ll rely on overseas consumers — particularly the Chinese — to sustain scorching growth rates.

Strong growth abroad caused eBay Inc.’s profit to jump 28 percent from the same period last year. Ebay announced first-quarter earnings Wednesday of $256.3 million, or 19 cents per share, compared with $200.1 million, or 15 cents per share in the same period of 2004.

• Google Inc.’s first-quarter profit increased by nearly six-fold as the online search engine leader’s rapid growth continued to soar beyond analysts’ bullish expectations.

The Mountain View-based company said Thursday that it earned $369.2 million, or $1.29 per share, for the three months ended in March. That compared with net income of $64 million, or 24 cents per share, at the same time last year.

Revenue totaled $1.26 billion, nearly doubling from $651.6 million at the same time last year. After subtracting commissions that Google paid to other Web sites in its advertising network, the company’s revenue was $794.5 million.

• McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest fast-food chain, reported a 42 percent jump in first-quarter profits Thursday despite slower sales growth at its U.S. restaurants.

Improving sales in Europe and continued momentum in the United States fueled the latest strong quarter by the Oak Brook, Ill.-based company.

Net income for the January-through-March quarter was $727.9 million, or 56 cents per share, compared with $511.5 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier.

Results included a gain of $179 million, or 13 cents per share, due to a decreased tax rate and a charge of 3 cents per share because of a shift from share-based compensation to mostly cash-based compensation. Excluding those items, the company said earnings were 46 cents per share.

• Office Depot Inc., the office products company, on Thursday said net income for the first quarter was essentially flat, as a strong retail performance in the United States and Canada was offset by sluggish performance in its business service and overseas operations.

The company said net income rose slightly to $115.3 million, or 37 cents a share, for the three months ended March 26 from $114.9 million, or 37 cents a share, a year ago.

Revenue increased to $3.7 billion from $3.61 billion, but trailed analysts’ estimates for $3.8 billion.