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CNNfn after the bell
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February 23, 1999: 6:59 p.m. ET
Earnings pour out after Wall Street calls it quits, and none disappoint
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - A slew of fourth-quarter and year-end company earnings, all of which met or exceeded expectations, came out soon after the close of trade Tuesday, as did an announcement of a stock split at a biotech company.
Circus Circus Enterprises (CIR) beat the Street by 3 cents, posting fourth quarter net income of $14.6 million, or 16 cents per share, a big jump from its 1997 fourth-quarter net of $708,000, or a penny per share. For the year, including charges, the hotel and casinos operator reported net earnings of $85.2 million, or 90 cents per diluted share. Before one-time items, it earned 94 cents per share. In 1997, the company posted a net of $89.9 million, or 94 cents per share.
Also exceeding Wall Street forecasts, this time by a penny, was BEA Systems (BEAS), which reported fourth quarter operating income of $6.0 million, or 5 cents per share, before charges related to its 1998 acquisitions of WebLogic and the Leader Group Inc. In the year-ago period, the systems software developer posted a net of $5.1 million, or 5 cents per share. Its full-year results, before one-time charges, beat the Street by 2 cents, with operating income reaching $22.2 million, or 19 cents per share, a significant jump from 1997 earnings of $12.1 million, or 6 cents per share.
Fourth quarter and yearly results from Longs Drug Stores Corp. (LDG) met analysts' forecasts thanks to strong pharmaceutical sales. The company reported net income of $23.3 million, or 60 cents per share in the fourth quarter, vs. $21.4 million, or 56 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. For the whole of 1998, Longs posted a net of $63.4 million, or $1.64 per share, up 9.8 percent from its 1997 net of $57.7 million, or $1.49 per share.
Pet supplies and services superstores operator Petsmart (PETM) did not disappoint Wall Street, posting a fourth quarter income of $19.5 million, or 15 cents per diluted share, a big jump from the $4.5 million, or 2 cents per share, it reported in the comparable period in 1997. For the whole year, the company earned $23.3 million, or 20 cents per share, again in line with expectations and a vast improvement over its net loss of $31.8 million, or 30 cents per share, in 1997.
Pizza king Papa John's International (PZZA) recorded fourth quarter net income totaling $10.7 million, or 35 cents per diluted share, which met analysts' forecasts and showed improvement over the year-earlier period, when the company posted a net of $8.04 million, or 27 cents per share. For the year, Papa John's showed profits of $37.77 million, or $1.25 per share, before the effects of an accounting change. Again, the results met expectations and demonstrated growth from 1997, when it posted a net of $26.85 million, or 91 cents per share.
And lastly on the earnings front, software solutions developer JD Edwards (JDEC) posted first-quarter net income of $4.3 million, or 4 cents per diluted share, a penny above what Wall Street analysts expected. The results, however, showed a decline compared to the $6.4 million, or 6 cents per diluted share, reported in the same period a year earlier.
In non-earnings news, biotech company Immunex Corp. (IMNX) said Tuesday it plans a 2-for-1 stock split effective March 25 for shareholders of record as of March 11.
It will be the first stock split since the company went public in 1983.
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