WaMu profits off 9 percent

Washington Mutual Inc. said its third-quarter profits slid nearly 9 percent as the company continued broad efforts to cut costs amid a slowdown in the home loan market. The results widely missed Wall Street’s expectations.

The nation’s largest savings and loan said strong growth in retail banking fees was offset by a decline in mortgage revenues amid a slowing housing market and competitive pressures.

Net income in the Seattle-based company’s retail banking division was $651 million, up 10 percent from third-quarter 2005, while the home loan unit suffered a net loss of $33 million, down 57 percent over the same period a year ago.

“This is about the most difficult environment we’ve seen in the mortgage banking industry since the early to mid-90s,” Steve Rotella, president and chief operating officer, said in a conference call with analysts.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, Washington Mutual reported earnings of $748 million, or 77 cents per share, down from $821 million, or 92 cents per share, a year ago.

“Allstate Corp., the second-largest U.S. personal-lines insurer behind State Farm, reported a $1.16 billion third-quarter profit Wednesday as it benefited from a quiet hurricane season.

The company raised guidance for its full-year earnings after topping Wall Street estimates with its quarterly result.

The large gain contrasted sharply with the third quarter of 2005, when Katrina and other hurricanes that devastated the Gulf Coast sent the Northbrook, Ill., insurer to a record $1.55 billion loss.

Earnings for the July-through-September period amounted to $1.83 per share and compared with a loss a year earlier of $2.36 per share.

Revenue was $8.74 billion, down 2 percent from $8.94 billion in the third quarter of 2005.

“Spokane-based Ambassadors Group Inc.‘s third-quarter net income rose 17 percent to $17.1 million, or 80 cents a share, from $14.6 million, or 68 cents a share a year earlier. Company officers noted Wednesday that overall revenue rose 15 percent over the same quarter from 2005.

The educational travel company’s revenue grew to $35.1 million from $30.4 million in the year-ago period.

“Northwest Bancorpation Inc., the parent company of Inland Northwest Bank, reported third-quarter profits of about $769,000, or 34 cents a share, bringing the Spokane-based bank’s year-to-date earnings to $2.02 million. In the same period a year ago, Northwest Bancorp.’s net income was 28 cents a share. The company had assets of $275 million at the end of September, a $31 million increase compared with the same time a year ago.

“Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the No. 2 computer chip maker behind Intel Corp., on Wednesday reported a 77 percent jump in earnings from last year. AMD benefited from record sales of mobile processors and the spin-off of its unprofitable flash memory business.

Sunnyvale-based AMD said after the market closed that net income for the quarter ended Oct. 1 was $134 million, or 27 cents per share, compared with $76 million, or 18 cents a share, in the same period last year.

Revenue was $1.33 billion, down from $1.52 billion last year. But AMD’s profit last year was depressed by the company’s unprofitable flash memory business, which was spun off in late 2005.

“EBay Inc. reported Wednesday that third-quarter profit increased 10 percent from the same period last year, beating Wall Street’s moderate expectations and encouraging executives to raise earnings forecasts for the full year.

The San Jose-based online auction company earned $280.9 million, or 20 cents per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared to $254.97 million, or 18 cents per share in the year-ago period.

“With its crucial computer services business coming up short again, IBM managed to wow investors with impressive third-quarter sales in its highly profitable hardware and software lines, including mainframes and Web applications.

The quarterly profit of $2.22 billion reported Tuesday by International Business Machines Corp. blew past Wall Street projections.

Net earnings for the three months ended Sept. 30 amounted to $1.45 per share. “Yahoo Inc. shares fell Wednesday after reporting a drop in its third-quarter profit and saying it will end a disappointing year with a financial letdown in the fourth quarter.

Yahoo shares fell $1.16, or 4.8 percent, to close at $22.99 Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

After the markets closed on Tuesday, Yahoo announced a 38 percent drop in its third quarter profit and dimmed the revenue outlook for the crucial holiday shopping season. Chairman Terry Semel acknowledged the company’s recent difficulties in a conference call and vowed to fix them with a “back to basics” approach.