ProLogis
The Denver-based warehouse owner said first-quarter earnings fell as the recession made it more difficult to lease space and the company reworked its debt.
Funds from operations (FFO) excluding some items, a cash-flow measure used by real estate investment trusts, fell to $232.3 million, or 86 cents a share, from $358.6 million, or $1.34, a year earlier, the company said.
ProLogis was expected to have FFO, which doesn’t comply with generally accepted accounting principles, of 69 cents, the median estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Starbucks
The coffee retailer’s fiscal second-quarter net income fell 77 percent, but the company said it topped its cost-cutting target for the quarter and began to see benefits from its turnaround efforts.
For the quarter ended March 29, Starbucks reported net income of $25 million, or 3 cents a share, down from $108.7 million, or 15 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding restructuring charges, earnings were 16 cents in the latest quarter, beating analyst expectations by a penny.
Net revenue fell 7.6 percent to $2.33 billion, as overall same-store sales fell 8 percent.
IAC/InterActiveCorp
The recession took a bite out of the Internet company’s first quarter, as revenue fell 22 percent in the media and advertising unit, which includes the search engine.
The New York-based company, headed by Barry Diller, said it lost $28.4 million, or 19 cents per share. This compares with a profit of $52.8 million, or 38 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue fell 10 percent to $332 million.
Visa
The world’s largest electronic-payment network said Wednesday its fiscal second-quarter profit rose nearly 71 percent, beating Wall Street expectations, as cost cuts helped offset tighter consumer spending that sent U.S. electronic payments volume down slightly.
Visa reported net income for the three months ended March 31 of $536 million, or 71 cents per share. That’s up from $314 million, or 39 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue rose 13 percent to $1.64 billion.
Time Warner
The media company said Wednesday that its first-quarter profit fell 14 percent on charges related to its cable unit spin-off amid an ad slump. The company also moved further toward shedding the beleaguered Internet unit AOL, while suggesting that its Time Inc. magazine business may go some day.
Time Warner earned $661 million, or 55 cents per share, for the period ended March 31, down from year-ago net income of $771 million, or 64 cents per share.
Excluding discontinued operations and other one-time items, earnings from continuing operations were $545 million, or 45 cents per share, beating the 38 cents per share that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters predicted.
Waste Management
The nation’s largest garbage collector said Wednesday its first-quarter profit fell 36 percent on restructuring and other costs and as the recession cut prices of recycled goods.
Waste Management posted net income of $155 million, or 31 cents per share, down from $241 million, or 48 cents, in the first quarter of 2008. Revenue fell 14 percent to $2.81 billion.
Goodyear
The largest U.S. tire maker said it lost $333 million in the first quarter, reflecting a sales drop of 28 percent and rising raw materials costs.
But its loss adjusted for one-time items was smaller than analysts expected.
The tiremaker reported its loss amounted to $1.38 per share in the three months ended March 31 in contrast to a profit of $147 million, or 60 cents per share, a year ago. Sales fell to $3.54 billion from $4.94 billion a year ago.
