Apple’s quarterly profit rises 41 percent

Apple Computer Inc. said Wednesday its second-quarter profit rose 41 percent, beating Wall Street estimates, as sales of its iPod players continued to soar and Macintosh computer shipments increased by 4 percent.

Cupertino-based Apple said it earned $410 million, or 47 cents per share, in the three months that ended April 1. In the same period a year ago, the company earned $290 million, or 34 cents a share.

Revenue for the quarter was $4.36 billion, up 34 percent from $3.24 billion in the year-ago quarter, but fell below the projections of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, who, on average, expected revenue of $4.54 billion.

The analysts’ consensus earnings forecast was 43 cents per share.

•Ambassadors Group, Inc., of Spokane, reported reported first-quarter net losses of $3.5 million, or 17 cents a share, from a year-earlier loss of $2.6 million, or 13 cents a share.

The educational travel company said it ordinarily posts a first-quarter loss because of seasonality in its business. Its next two quarters provide the bulk of annual earnings, company CEO Jeff Thomas said.

The company reported net revenue increased 15 percent to $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2006 from $2.2 million in the comparable 2005 quarter.

•Idaho Independent Bank., of Coeur d’Alene, reported net income of $2.3 million in the first quarter, up from income of $1.4 million in the first quarter of 2005. Per-share earnings were 78 cents in the most recent quarter versus 49 cents a year ago.

Total assets were $549 million as of March 31, a 29 percent increase from the same time a year ago.

•Cingular Wireless LLC, the nation’s largest cell phone provider, reported Wednesday that it swung to a profit in the first quarter on a 9 percent increase in revenue.

The Atlanta-based company said it earned $354 million for the three months ending March 31, compared to a loss of $240 million in the same period a year ago.

Revenue rose to $8.98 billion, compared to $8.23 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.

•Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drug company, said Wednesday that despite lower sales, its first-quarter profit soared compared with results a year ago that were depressed by two major charges.

Pfizer earned $4.1 billion, or 56 cents a share, for the quarter compared with $301 million, or 4 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, the maker of Lipitor for high cholesterol and Zoloft for depression earned 61 cents a share, beating the 53 cents a share prediction of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

•Online auctioneer eBay Inc. on Wednesday matched analysts’ earnings estimates for the first quarter and reiterated its outlook for the remainder of the year, disappointing investors expecting bigger things from the e-commerce bellwether.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company said it earned $248.3 million, or 17 cents per share, during the three months ended in March. That represented a 3 percent decrease from net income of $256.3 million, or 19 cents per share, at the same time last year.

EBay accounted for the two quarters much differently because of new rules requiring publicly held companies to deduct the costs of their employee stock options from their profits.

•Honeywell International Inc. said Wednesday its first-quarter earnings jumped 22 percent, boosted by a stronger performance in its aerospace and automation and control businesses.

The diversified manufacturer said net income increased to $436 million, or 52 cents per share, from $358 million, or 42 cents per share, a year ago.

It was not an exact comparison, because new accounting rules now require companies to recognize the costs of their employee stock options. Honeywell’s options for the first quarter cut into net income by 2 cents per share, or $25 million dollars. While the company did not publicly document stock option costs last year, a company spokesman said it would have been $22 million.

•Shares of Yahoo Inc. jumped Wednesday after the company reminded Wall Street that Google Inc. isn’t the only Internet powerhouse capitalizing on the online advertising boom.

Yahoo shares rose $2.24, or 7.2 percent, to close at $33.54 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The company made its point Tuesday after financial markets closed with a first-quarter profit that matched analyst estimates and eased recent worries that Yahoo has been losing valuable ground to Google in the search engine market that steers a major portion of Internet advertising.