Scrolling Headlines From Yahoo in Play
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (TheStreet) — Sprint Nextel (S Quote) reported a second-quarter loss of $384 million, or 13 cents a share, wider than a year-earlier loss of $344 million, or 12 cents a share, as wireless revenue dipped by about 9%.
Total revenue for the third-largest wireless provider was $8.1 billion, down from $9.06 billion a year earlier. Wireless revenue was $7 billion vs. $7.74 billion in the same quarter of 2008. Sprint said total wireless customers declined by about 257,000 in the second quarter.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters estimated Sprint would post a loss of 2 cents a share on revenue of $8.12 billion.
Sprint announced Tuesday a plan to buy Virgin Mobile USA for $483 million in an effort to increase its prepaid cellphone services.
—Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York.
NEW YORK (AP) — Media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday its second-quarter profit shrank 34 percent as revenue dropped in the company’s publishing, movie and online properties.
But the New York-based company affirmed its full-year adjusted earnings projection of roughly $1.98 per share, or flat year-over-year.
Time Warner, which owns the Warner Bros. movie studio, the HBO and Turner cable networks, Time Inc. magazines and the AOL Internet portal, earned $519 million, or 43 cents per share, in the three months ended in June. That’s down from $792 million, or 66 cents per share, a year earlier.
Last year’s results include earnings from its recently spun-off cable unit. Earning from continuing operations, which exclude results from Time Warner Cable, fell 8 percent.
Excluding items, the company said it would have earned 45 cents per share in the most recent quarter.
Revenue fell 9 percent to $6.81 billion.
Analysts, who typically exclude items, expected earnings of 37 cents per share on sales of $6.97 billion, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Health insurer WellPoint Inc (WLP.N) posted a 7.6 percent drop in net income on Wednesday, but the results topped analysts’ forecasts as its programs for the elderly improved their performance.
Net income at the largest U.S. health insurer by membership fell to $693.5 million, or $1.43 per share, from $750.5 million, or $1.44 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding net investment losses, earnings of $1.50 a share were 7 cents ahead of the analysts’ average forecast, according to Reuters Estimates.
WellPoint joins a string of U.S. health insurers that reported better-than-expected results this earnings season.
The company’s revenue slipped 1.4 percent to $15.27 billion, below the $15.41 billion expected by analysts.
Its enrollment stood at 34.2 million at the end of June, down 3 percent from a year earlier. Widespread job losses have pressured the employer-based enrollment of WellPoint and other health insurers.
Operating profit in WellPoint’s consumer business soared 67.7 percent, primarily stemming from operating improvements in its seniors business.
WellPoint spent 82.9 percent of its premium revenue on medical costs, down from 83.3 percent a year earlier. The company now expects medical costs to amount to about 82.9 percent of premium revenue for the year, up from its prior view of about 82.7 percent. The measure is closely watched by Wall Street as a gauge of profitability.
The company projected 2009 earnings of $5.06 to $5.12 per share, including net investment losses of 54 cents, which is equivalent with its prior outlook.
By Chris Reiter
July 29 (Bloomberg) — Daimler AG, the world’s second- largest maker of luxury cars, forecast a “gradual improvement” in operating profit after posting a third consecutive quarterly loss as the recession hurt sales of its Mercedes-Benz models.
The net loss was 1.06 billion euros ($1.5 billion), or 99 cents a share, compared with a profit of 1.4 billion euros, or 1.40 euros, a year earlier, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company said today in a statement. The loss was narrower than the 1.14 billion-euro median loss estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Revenue fell 25 percent to 19.6 billion euros.
Daimler rose as much as 5.6 percent in Frankfurt trading. Government-funded rebates in Germany, France and Italy have helped stem sales declines this year after industrywide deliveries in Europe dropped the most in 15 years in 2008. Mercedes-Benz’s share of the European auto market, its biggest, slipped to 4.1 percent in the first half of 2009 from 4.5 percent a year earlier as the incentives helped mass-market producers more than luxury manufacturers.
“We succeeded in improving earnings in the second quarter compared with the first” at the car and van operations and financial-services units, and Daimler “on the right track,” Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche said in the statement. “However, a comparison with the very good second quarter of last year shows that there is still a lot of work to be done.”
The pace of the decline slowed to 5 percent in June, allowing Daimler to increase production rates. The company has 41,000 employees working at least 10 percent fewer hours, compared with 68,000 workers in April. Daimler said in April that the Mercedes-Benz Cars unit, which also makes the two-seat Smart, will return to profit in the second half after a new- version E-Class sedan went on sale late in the first quarter.
Chrysler Withdrawal…..
Sanofi-Aventis /quotes/comstock/13*!sny/quotes/nls/sny (SNY 33.44, +0.57, +1.73%) /quotes/comstock/23r!psan (FR:SAN 46.92, -0.05, -0.11%) said its profit rose 5% to 1.06 billion euros ($1.5 billion), with sales up 11% to 7.44 billion euros.
Excluding 590 million euros for restructuring items and for various charges relating to the company’s acquisition of Aventis, the company would have reported a 29% profit rose to 2.27 billion euros, or 1.74 euros a share.
Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a profit of 2.08 billion euros on sales of 7.29 billion euros.
Lantus sales grew 26% at constant exchange rates during the quarter to 792 million euros.
The drug has come under the fire after an article in Diabetologia in June said there was a potential link between Lantus and cancer. The company has hotly denied that accusation and said there were limitations to the study….
TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Japan’s Nissan Motor Co. /quotes/comstock/!7201 (JP:7201 626.00, +10.00, +1.62%) /quotes/comstock/15*!nsany/quotes/nls/nsany (NSANY 13.19, +0.20, +1.54%) on Wednesday posted an operating profit of 11.6 billion yen ($122.9 million) for the April-June quarter, down from a profit of 80 billion yen in the year-ago period, but above a consensus estimate for a loss of 117 billion yen in a Thomson Reuters poll of analysts. Still, the nation’s third-largest car maker said it had a group net loss of 16.5 billion yen in the quarter, swinging from a year-ago profit of 52.8 billion yen. However, it maintained its full-year forecast for a net loss of 170 billion yen.
Honda’s consolidated net income attributable to Honda Motor Co., Ltd. for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2009 totaled JPY 7.5 billion (USD 79 million), a decrease of 95.6% from the same period in 2008. Basic net income attributable to Honda Motor Co., Ltd. per common share for the quarter amounted to JPY 4.17 (USD 0.04), a decrease of JPY 91.39 from JPY 95.56 for the corresponding period last year. One Honda American Depository Share represents one common share.
Consolidated net sales and other operating revenue (herein referred to as “revenue”) for the quarter amounted to JPY 2,002.2 billion (USD 20,854 million), a decrease of 30.2% from the same period in 2008, primarily due to decreased revenue in the automobile business and unfavorable currency translation effects. Honda estimates that if calculated at the same exchange rate as the corresponding period in 2008, revenue for the quarter would have decreased by approximately 20.7%.
Consolidated operating income for the quarter totaled JPY 25.1 billion (USD 262 million), a decrease of 88.0%, due primarily to decreased profit attributable to decreased revenue, the increase in fixed costs per unit as a result of reduced production and the unfavorable impact of currency effects caused by the appreciation of the Japanese yen, despite decreased SG&A expenses and R&D expenses and continuing cost reduction efforts.
Consolidated income before income taxes and equity in income of affiliates for the quarter totaled JPY 5.4 billion (USD 57 million), a decrease of 97.6% from the same period in 2008.
Equity in income of affiliates amounted to JPY 14.2 billion (USD 148 million) for the quarter, a decrease of 62.7% from the corresponding period last year.
Financial Highlights….
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ – News) today announced financial results for the second quarter and first half ended June 30, 2009. Net income(c) on a fully exchanged basis was $43.1 million, or $0.34 per share (diluted), for the second quarter of 2009, compared to $64.6 million, or $0.54 per share (diluted), for the second quarter of 2008, and compared to a net loss of $(29.7) million, or $(0.26) per share (diluted), for the first quarter of 2009. Net income on a fully exchanged basis was $13.5 million, or $0.11 per share (diluted), for the first half of 2009, excluding a $62.6 million pre-tax charge during the first quarter of 2009, compared to $80.5 million, or $0.71 per share (diluted) for the first half of 2008.
On a U.S. GAAP basis, which is before exchange of exchangeable interests, net income was $28.2 million, or $0.34 per share, for the second quarter of 2009, compared to $34.3 million, or $0.54 per share, for the second quarter of 2008. Net loss was $(25.3) million, or $(0.36) per share (diluted), for the first half of 2009, including the first-quarter pre-tax charge, compared to net income of $42.1 million or $0.70 per share (diluted) for the first half of 2008.
Lazard believes that results assuming full exchange of outstanding exchangeable interests provide the most meaningful basis for comparison among present, historical and future periods.
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By ALEX MACDONALD
LONDON — ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker by volume and revenue, Wednesday swung to a larger-than-expected second-quarter net loss, partly due to an exceptional pretax charge of $1.2 billion, but said it expects to deliver better profits in the third quarter as production increases and raw-material costs decrease.
The Luxembourg-based steelmaker posted a net loss of $792 million in the three months to June 30 after a net profit of $5.84 billion in the year-earlier period. This was wider than analysts’ expectations of a net loss of $385 million, according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll of seven analysts. The net loss was impacted by an exceptional charge related to inventory write-downs and work-force reductions.
Second-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, of $1.22 billion was 85% below $8.05 billion a year ago but 38% higher than $883 million in the first quarter. The figure was broadly in line with analysts’ expectations of $1.23 billion, according to a poll of 10 analysts.
The steelmaker said that in the third quarter, it expects its closely-watched Ebitda to rise to between $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion on increased steel output and stable to slightly lower average selling prices.
Second-quarter revenue fell 60% to $15.2 billion from $37.8 billion in the same period a year ago.
Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive and chairman of ArcelorMittal, said “In recent weeks we have started to see some initial signs of recovery, as a result of which we are now planning to re-start production at some facilities. Provided there are no further unexpected economic deteriorations, we should see continued gradual improvement throughout the second half of the year, with full recovery remaining slow and progressive.
ArcelorMittal’s shares fell 4.3% or 1.15 to €25.33 a share Tuesday in Amsterdam on profit-taking ahead of the results. They are up 49% since the beginning of the year as steel prices and production have picked up and the company has taken steps to strengthen its balance sheet amid the economic downturn.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Moody’s Corp /quotes/comstock/13*!mco/quotes/nls/mco (MCO 27.62, +0.87, +3.25%) said Wednesday that its second quarter profit fell to $109.3 million, or 46 cents a share, compared to $135.2 million, or 54 cents a share a year ago. Revenue fell to $450.7 million, from $487.6 million a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected the company to earn 40 cents a share in the second quarter. Moody’s Chairman and Chief Executive Raymond McDaniel said in a press release Wednesday, “We are raising our full-year 2009 EPS guidance to $1.45 to $1.55 based on first half performance; however, we remain cautious about business conditions for the remainder of the year.”
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Wyndham Worldwide Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!wyn/quotes/nls/wyn (WYN 12.70, +0.03, +0.24%) said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit was $71 million, or 39 cents a share, compared to $98 million, or 55 cents a share in the year-ago period. Net revenues were $920 million compared to $1.13 billion in the second quarter of 2008. On an adjusted basis, the hospitality company said earnings were 41 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had expected, on average, earnings of 37 cents a share on revenue of $920 million. The latest quarter is the sixth in a row that Wyndam’s earnings have beaten consensus estimates.
