General Electric Co. on Friday posted a 19 percent slump in fourth-quarter earnings but beat Wall Street forecasts and reiterated it expects a return to growth in 2011.
GE also said it’s on the hunt for “bolt-on” acquisitions in the broad infrastructure sector.
Net profits for the December quarter of $3.01 billion, or 28 cents a share, compared with $3.72 billion, or 35 cents, a year earlier and a 26-cent consensus forecast among analysts. Revenue dropped 10 percent to $41.44 billion.
McDonald’s dollar menu keeps gaining fans in the recession, and its profit rose last fall, but the world’s largest burger chain said Friday that its annual revenue slipped for the first time in at least a quarter-century.
Falling commodity costs and currency fluctuations helped boost the company’s fourth-quarter profit, which amounted to $1.22 billion, or $1.11 per share. That’s 23 percent more than in the same period last year, when McDonald’s profit was $985.3 million, or 87 cents a share. Revenue for the three months that ended Dec. 31 was $5.97 billion, up 7 percent.
Harley-Davidson Inc. reported a fourth-quarter loss, its first quarterly deficit in 16 years, as restructuring costs and the economy wore on the motorcycle maker.
Harley-Davidson has come under pressure as the tight credit markets and the weak economy led consumers to shun purchases of its high- end, heavyweight motorcycles. Harley-Davidson said it lost $218.7 million, or 94 cents per share, during the fourth quarter. That marks its first three-month loss since the fourth quarter of 1993 and contrasts with a profit of $77.8 million, or 34 cents per share, a year ago. Quarterly revenue tumbled 40 percent to $764.5 million.
Schlumberger Ltd. said Friday that oil drilling has started to recover after a plunge in crude prices last year helped cut the company’s fourth-quarter profit by 31 percent.
Schlumberger said it earned $795 million, or 65 cents per share, for the three months ended Dec. 31. That’s down from $1.15 billion, or 95 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue fell 16.4 percent to $5.74 billion.
