NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Lucent Technologies stock soared Thursday, hitting a new 52-week high, after the company's CEO said business conditions had begun to stabilize.
The nation's biggest telecom equipment company is focused on revenue generation and should see sustained profits in 2004, Lucent CEO Patricia Russo said at the annual meeting of the Council on Competitiveness, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
"Now that we are seeing some signs of stability" in the market, the company can work at bringing more revenue in, Russo was quoted as telling Dow Jones.
Lucent (LU: up $0.22 to $3.23, Research, Estimates) shares jumped as much as 8 percent Thursday afternoon, hitting a new 52-week high of $3.25.
The stock -- one of the most widely held in the United States -- traded near $65 in late 1999 before it started skidding in 2000, hurt by the bursting of the tech and telecom bubbles as well as problems specific to Lucent.
The company, based in Murray Hill, N.J., last week posted its first profit since March 2000.
The company reported earnings of $77 million, or 2 cents a share, for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $2.9 billion, or 84 cents a share, a year earlier.
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