Yahoo
The Internet company stumbled to a fourth-quarter loss of $303 million but withstood the recession better than analysts had expected. Yahoo’s loss translated to 22 cents per share. It compared with a profit of 15 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2007, when Yahoo earned $206 million.
The fourth-quarter setback wasn’t as bad as it appeared because the loss stemmed from charges to cover Yahoo’s costs for laying off 1,500 employees last month and to account for bad investments. If not for those charges of nearly $600 million, Yahoo said it would have earned 17 cents per share.
Sun Microsystems
The computing company swung to a loss of $209 million in the latest quarter as it absorbed a big restructuring charge for job cuts and grappled with falling demand for its servers and data-storage machines.
Sun said after the market closed Tuesday that its loss amounted to 28 cents per share in the latest quarter. In the comparable period a year earlier, Sun had a profit of $260 million, 31 cents per share.
Peabody Energy
The coal miner reported fourth-quarter profits that easily topped Wall Street expectations on surging contract prices in Australia.
Acknowledging continued softening in U.S. coal demand, however, the St. Louis-based company said it would stick with the 2009 production outlook.
Peabody reported net income of $293.3 million, or $1.10 per share, in the latest quarter, up from $35.8 million, or 13 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue in the most recent period rose to $1.9 billion from $1.2 billion.
Valero Energy
The gasoline refiner said Tuesday it lost $3.28 billion in the fourth quarter as it absorbed a huge one-time valuation charge and a slowing economy kept profit margins tight.
Valero said it would slash capital spending by nearly $1 billion this year. The nation’s largest independent refiner reported a loss of $6.36 per share in the three months ended Dec. 31. It earned $567 million, or $1.04 per share, in the quarter a year ago.
U.S. Steel
The giant steel producer’s fourth-quarter earnings soared as strong pipe sales and an acquisition-related gain boosted results, but it forecast an operating loss in the current quarter due to the global economic slowdown.
The Pittsburgh-based company said Tuesday its net income jumped to $308 million, or $2.65 per share, from $35 million, or 29 cents per share, a year ago. Quarterly sales rose to $4.57 billion.
Delta Air Lines
Demand for air travel continues to weaken as deep fare sales in recent weeks have not spurred customers to open up their wallets, executives said Tuesday after the world’s biggest carrier posted a $1.4 billion loss for the final three months of 2008 and signaled that the revenue environment for 2009 will be challenging.
Delta’s net loss in the fourth quarter was equivalent to $2.11 a share for the October-December period, compared with a loss of $70 million, or 18 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier.
Verizon Communications
The country’s second-largest telecommunications provider posted a 15 percent earnings increase for the fourth quarter Tuesday, as the shrinking economy did little to dampen consumer appetites for wireless, Internet and TV service.
Verizon earned $1.24 billion, or 43 cents per share, up from $1.07 billion, or 37 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.4 percent to $24.6 billion from a year ago.
