NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Company profits for the second quarter of 2002 are looking up, according to the latest numbers on earnings preannouncements.

According to research firm First Call, the number of companies saying they expect to beat current analysts' second-quarter consensus earnings estimates is up more than 15 percent from the year-ago period. The percentage of companies saying they expect to report in line with expectations is also up.

Of 678 companies preannouncing, 242 expect to beat expectations, compared with 118 companies out of 602 up to May 28 a year ago. This year 163 expect to be in line, compared with 101 for the same period last year.

In addition, the percentage of companies expecting to miss estimates dwindled to 40 percent from about 62 percent, with 273 firms guiding down.

In the technology sector, about a third of companies said they planned to beat expectations. Of the 182 preannouncing, 61 said they would beat, with 45 expecting to be in line and 76 looking to miss.

For the first quarter of 2002, of 490 companies reporting, 301 beat expectations, 116 met and 73 missed.

Steven Wieting, economist with Salomon Smith Barney, told CNNfn a recovery in corporate profits is extremely important for an overall economic recovery, but warned investors not to get too impatient.

"This kind of sequential recovery, this coming up from the base, has been as good as we've seen in any economic recovery at this stage, but again this is multiyear process," Wieting said.

"We can't make a massive calendar-year advance if we're at the bottom of the hill," he said.

Separately, company profits in the first quarter of 2002 edged up slightly from the previous quarter, according to a government report.

The Commerce Department said first-quarter profits from production rose 0.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2001 to $826 billion. That follows a strong rise of 17.9 percent from the third quarter to the fourth.

Before tax, first-quarter profits rose 3.7 percent, compared with a drop of 9 percent from the third quarter to the fourth.

The profit figures were included in the Friday report on revisions to first-quarter gross domestic product.

GDP, the broadest measure of the nation's economy, grew at a 5.6 percent annual rate in the quarter, the Commerce Department reported, compared with the government's prior estimate of 5.8 percent and with 1.7 percent growth in the fourth quarter.