UPS
With more people using cellphones to buy and ship goods over the Internet, a greater number of customers are paying for premium services such as next-day air, and businesses are beefing up operations overseas.
The result: a fourth-quarter profit of $757 million, nearly triple the amount from a year earlier. The only blemish was UPS’s money-losing freight business, which ships larger items such as gym equipment, grand pianos and automobiles.
Fourth-quarter profit equaled 75 cents a share, versus a profit of $254 million, or 25 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 2.5 percent to $12.38 billion.
BP
A net profit of $4.3 billion in the petroleum giant’s fourth quarter is up from a year-ago loss but short of analysts’ estimates, due to weak earnings on refining. The company had a loss of $3.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008 but a profit of $5.3 billion in the third quarter of 2009.
Archer Daniels Midland
Second-quarter profit slipped 2 percent as its revenue was depressed by lower prices for agricultural products.
The company earned $567 million, or 88 cents a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, down from $578 million, or 90 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue fell 5 percent to $15.9 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected 72 cents a share.
