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Lucent's 1Q net grows
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January 21, 1999: 8:23 a.m. ET
Telecom gear maker beats estimates, says 2Q also will top forecast
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Lucent Technologies' fiscal first-quarter earnings exceeded analysts' estimates, coming in at $1.41 billion, or $1.05 a diluted share, excluding extraordinary items, for the three months ended Dec. 31.
The consensus of analysts surveyed by First Call was for earnings of 99 cents a share for the Murray Hill, N.J.-based telecom equipment maker.
Including a previously announced accounting change, Lucent earnings in the latest period were $2.71 billion, or $2 a diluted share. The latest results are an improvement from the $1.12 billion, or 86 cents a share, posted by Lucent a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter rose 6 percent to $9.20 billion.
Chairman Richard McGinn also says Lucent's (LU) earnings per share for the second quarter, ending March 31, will be double the 14 cents a share reported a year earlier. That would exceed the current 23 cents a share First Call consensus forecast.
"Lucent begins fiscal 1999 with a solid quarter, with record earnings and margins," says McGinn. "As our customers continue to evolve and transform their networks for next-generation broadband communications and we add new customers around the world, Lucent's momentum has never been stronger."
But the picture wasn't completely bright. "Some revenue Lucent had expected to recognize at the end of the first quarter was delayed into the second quarter," McGinn says. "However, customer demand remains robust and we continue to take share."
For all of fiscal 1999, which ends Sept. 30, McGinn says he expects revenue to grow by 19-20 percent, and earnings per share, excluding extraordinary items, to grow by 35 percent.
"Our announced merger agreements with Ascend Communications (ASND), a leader in service provider data networking, and Kenan Systems, the premier billing software company, will help to provide additional momentum in 1999 and further establish Lucent as the clear leader in end-to-end communications networking," says McGinn.
Lucent stock closed Wednesday at 115-1/2, up 1-7/16. 
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Lucent Technologies
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