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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Dominion Resources Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!d/quotes/nls/d (D 34.50, -0.04, -0.12%) said Friday net income rose to $454 million, or 76 cents a share, from $298 million, or 51 cents a share in the year-ago period. Operating earnings rose to $406 million, or 68 cents a share from $289 million, or 50 cents per share for the same period a year ago. Revenue rose to $3.45 billion from $3.4 billion. Analysts expected earnings of 64 cents a share in the latest period. Dominion expects third-quarter operating earnings in the range of 88 cents to 93 cents a share, below the Wall Street target of 98 cents a share
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Q2 EPS loss ex-items 59 cts tops Street’s forecast
* Sales down 36 percent to $1.39 bln
NEW YORK, July 31 (Reuters) – Forest products company Weyerhaeuser Co (WY.N) on Friday posted a wider second-quarter loss, hurt by weak demand from the construction industry, but results topped Wall Street expectations.
For the period ended June 30, the company posted a net loss of $106 million, or 50 cents per share, compared with a loss $96 million, or 45 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.
Excluding one-time items, Weyerhaeuser posted a loss of 59 cents per share, beating analysts expectations for a loss of 69 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.
Sales at the Federal Way, Washington-based company fell 36 percent to $1.39 billion. (Reporting by Matt Daily and Ernest Schneyder; Editing by Derek Caney)
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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — ITT Corp. said Friday its second-quarter profit and revenue fell 9 percent, but results widely beat analyst expectations and the defense contractor raised its 2009 profit guidance.
Shares rose in premarket trading.
Net income was $201.4 million, or $1.10 per share, down from $221 million, or $1.19 per share, in the same quarter last year.
Excluding special items, income from continuing operations was $1.06 per share, which ITT said was better than expected due primarily to productivity improvements and non-operating benefits.
Revenue for the quarter ended June 30 was $2.78 billion, down from $3.06 billion in the second quarter of 2008.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 80 cents per share on revenue of $2.7 billion.
ITT raised its full-year adjusted earnings-per-share guidance to a range of $3.50 to $3.70 from a previous forecast of $3.20 to $3.60. The company sees 2009 revenue of $10.8 billion to $11 billion.
Analysts expect ITT to earn $3.44 per share on revenue of $10.86 billion.
Revenue at ITT’s fluid technology business was $869 million, down 15 percent from the year-ago period. Defense electronics and services business revenue was $1.6 billion, about flat compared with the same quarter last year.
And revenue at the motion and flow control business was $308 million, down 30 percent, the company said.
Shares rose $1.93, or 4 percent, to $50.20 ahead of Friday’s market open.
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SAN RAMON, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX – News) today reported earnings of $1.75 billion ($0.87 per share – diluted) for the second quarter 2009, compared with $5.98 billion ($2.90 per share – diluted) in the 2008 second quarter. Foreign-currency effects reduced earnings in the 2009 quarter by $453 million, compared with a benefit to income of $126 million a year earlier.
For the first half of 2009, earnings were $3.58 billion ($1.79 per share – diluted), down 68 percent from $11.14 billion ($5.38 per share – diluted) in the first six months of 2008.
Sales and other operating revenues in the second quarter 2009 were $40 billion, compared with $81 billion in the year-ago quarter. First-half 2009 revenues were $75 billion, versus $146 billion in the corresponding 2008 period. The decline in both comparative periods was primarily due to lower prices for refined products, crude oil and natural gas.
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Sees Q3 shipments up 15 percent from Q2, ASP flat
* Expects strong consumer demand for game consoles
* Stock jumps 6.8 percent, outpacing main board advance (Recasts with quotes and details)
TAIPEI, July 31 (Reuters) – Taiwan’s ASE (2311.TW), the world’s largest chip packaging and testing company, became the latest chip firm in Taiwan to express optimism on its third-quarter outlook because of growing demand.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE) (ASX.N) said on Friday that its third-quarter shipments would rise 15 percent from the second quarter, while its average selling price (ASP) could be flat in the same period.
“In the third quarter, (demand in) the general consumer market should be strongest, followed by communications devices, with the PC market relatively slow,” ASE chief financial officer Joseph Tung told an investor conference, where he explained his company’s second-quarter results and gave third-quarter guidance.
Tung said demand for game consoles was robust.
ASE, which counts Broadcom (BRCM.O), Freescale and Mediatek (2454.TW) among its major clients and books about a third of its revenue from consumer products, put its 2009 capital spending forecast at around $200 million, which Tung said was similar to his previous forecast.
ASE beat market expectations with a net profit of T$1.674 billion for April-June, even though profit was down 31 percent from a year earlier. [nTPU001548] It swung from a first-quarter net loss of T$1.57 billion.
Citing strong demand for computers and other consumer devices that require chips, TSMC (2330.TW) and UMC (2303.TW), the world’s two biggest contract chipmakers, also flagged a stronger third quarter earlier this week. [ID:nTP261512] [ID:nTP182537]
ASE, whose second-quarter gross profit margin rose to 21.7 percent from 4.9 percent in the first quarter, released the results after the Taipei stock market closed on Friday.
ASE shares jumped 6.8 percent, outpacing the main TAIEX’s 0.7 percent gain. ASE and smaller rival Siliconware (2325.TW) encase silicon chips in plastic packages so that they can be connected to circuit boards.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA–(Marketwire – 07/31/09) – AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU – News) reported an 11% increase in second quarter adjusted headline earnings to a record, after improved performance from its Tanzanian and Ghanaian regions helped boost production.
Adjusted headline earnings increased to $167m, or US47 cents a share in the three months to 30 June, compared with $150m, or US42 cents, in the previous quarter.
“We saw a strong operating performance across most of the operations and a nice sweetener from our received gold price,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani said. “We’re seeing the results of our interventions in the continued improvements at Obuasi and the early signs of a recovery at Geita are also very encouraging for us.”
AngloGold Ashanti’s production during the period rose to 1.127Moz at a total cash cost of $472/oz, from 1.103Moz at $445/oz in the prior quarter. Higher production and lower costs were realised in South America and in Africa, outside of South Africa.
The company has appointed new management this year to oversee its operations in Ghana and Tanzania, part of its strategy to ensure appropriate skills at each level in the organization. Obuasi reported a 10% rise in production to 101,000 ounces and a 16% drop in cash costs to $589/oz, while Geita posted a 43% increase in production to 63,000 ounces and a 14% decline in costs.
The company’s West Wits operations in South Africa raised production by 7%, despite the large number of public holidays around Easter and the general election. The Vaal River operations, however, reported a 15% decline in output and a commensurate increase in costs, largely due to safety-related stoppages.
Eight of our colleagues tragically lost their lives across the company’s operations during the quarter. This safety performance is a matter for concern and AngloGold Ashanti’s management has intensified its efforts to improve overall safety across its operations. Interventions have been made with teams that have had the highest accident rates to effect rapid improvements. A broader strategy to better the organisation’s safety performance will be implemented in the first quarter of 2010. It is important to note that AngloGold Ashanti’s lost time injury frequency rate, a broad measure of overall safety performance, declined 19% during the quarter to its lowest level ever. There have been no fatalities since June 2.
The safety stoppages, combined with mill repairs in the first quarter at Geita and lower-than-anticipated recoveries from the Cripple Creek & Victor in the U.S., have necessitated the adjustment of full-year guidance to 4.7Moz – 4.8Moz from the original target of 4.9Moz – 5.0Moz. For the third quarter, production is estimated at 1.2 million ounces at a total cash cost of approximately US$530 per ounce, assuming an average rand exchange rate of R8.10 to the US dollar for the quarter.
The average price received during the quarter increased by 5% to $897/oz, achieving a 3% discount to the spot price.
Following the successful issue of a five-year convertible bond and receipt of the first tranche of the proceeds from the sale of its Boddington stake, the company used $797m of its internal cash reserves to restructure its hedge book during July.
“We’ve worked hard to strengthen our balance sheet and that gave us the flexibility to skin the hedge book by getting it well below one year’s production,” Cutifani said. “The market fundamentals are extremely robust for gold, so we decided to move aggressively sooner rather than later.”
The restructuring affected about 1.4 million ounces, reducing the overall hedge commitment to 4.47 million ounces at July 25, less than one year’s production. The committed ounces are expected to decline further, to 4.1 million ounces by the end of 2009, a year ahead of target.
The company now expects to achieve a 7% discount to spot gold prices at $950/oz gold price, with the hedge book reducing by approximately 800,000oz a year, until it winds up at the end of 2014.
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Calpine Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!cpn/quotes/nls/cpn (CPN 13.64, +0.60, +4.60%) said that it swung to a second-quarter net loss of $78 million, or 16 cents a share. Last year, the firm posted a profit of $197 million, or 41 cents a share. Operating revenue dropped to $1.47 billion, from $2.8 billion a year ago. “Because the execution of our hedging strategy, improvements in operations and sustainable cost-cutting have been better than expected, we are raising and tightening our projected 2009 adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to $1.675 billion to $1.725 billion,” the firm said. It was previously forecasting EBITDA of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion.
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Constellation Energy /quotes/comstock/13*!ceg/quotes/nls/ceg (CEG 29.03, +0.13, +0.45%) said Friday it made 4 cents a share in the second quarter vs. 95 cents a share in the year-earlier period. The company raised its earnings guidance for the full year to $3.10 to $3.30 a share. Adjusted earnings, which exclude one-time items, fell to $1.08 from $1.82 in the same period a year earlier.
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