Kodak snaps by estimates
|
|
October 18, 1999: 2:47 p.m. ET
Higher sales, lower costs help photo company post higher 3Q earnings
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Strong sales and reduced costs helped Eastman Kodak Co. beat Wall Street's third-quarter earnings expectations Monday.
Kodak said sales increases were spurred by growth of consumer imaging products and services, increased sales of digital cameras, increased sales in health imaging due primarily to the Imation medical imaging acquisition, and increased sales of graphics products in the Kodak Professional segment.
Excluding a restructuring charge, Eastman Kodak, one of the Dow Jones industrial average components, posted income of $466 million, or $1.45 per diluted share, a 20 percent increase over the year-earlier period.
Analysts polled by First Call Corp. had expected the Rochester, N.Y.-based company to earn $1.43 per share.
Including the restructuring charge, net earnings were $235 million, or 73 cents per share. The company reported sales of $3.58 billion, up 6 percent from a year ago.
The charge reflects the reduction of about 3,400 jobs worldwide and asset write-downs. Kodak had said previously that it was looking at 2,000 to 2,500 job cuts. The company began cutting about 17,700 jobs in December 1997.
For the first nine months net earnings totaled $917 million, or $2.84 per share. Earnings were reduced by $453 million in pre-tax charges in the first and third quarters. Excluding these charges, year-to-date earnings were $1.22 billion, or $3.77 per share, compared with $1.12 billion, or $3.41 per share, a year ago.
Sales rose 5 percent to $10.3 billion.
"Looking to the fourth quarter of 1999," said George Fisher, Kodak's chairman and CEO, "we are confident of the continued revenue growth of our business consistent with year-to-date results and the current analyst consensus is consistent with our view of the full-year earnings of the company."
Shares of Eastman Kodak (EK) rose 3/8 to 71-1/4 in recent trading.
|
|
|
|
Kodak
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
|
|