Cisco
Net income jumped 44 percent in the latest quarter as the company continues to put last year’s slump behind it.
The world’s largest maker of computer networking equipment said Wednesday that income was $2.2 billion, or 40 cents a share, in the fiscal second quarter, which ended Jan. 28. That compares with earnings of $1.5 billion, or 27 cents a share, a year ago.
Excluding the cost of stock-based compensation and some acquisition-related amortization, Cisco earned 47 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet had on average expected earnings of 43 cents a share on that basis.
Groupon
The online deals site, reporting for the first time as a public company, said its fourth-quarter revenue rose sharply, but it lost money.
Groupon said its net loss attributable to common shareholders was $42.7 million, or 8 cents a share, for the period. A year earlier, it booked a larger loss of $378.6 million, or $1.08 a share.
Groupon said its adjusted loss was 2 cents a share, while analysts expected an adjusted profit of 3 cents a share. Revenue was $506.5 million, nearly triple last year’s $172.2 million for the quarter.
TW Telecom
The Douglas County-based company’s fourth-quarter profit slid 6.3 percent as it saw higher expenses, though revenue improved.
Formerly known as Time Warner Telecom, the company reported a profit of $16.4 million, down from $17.5 million a year earlier. The most recent period included higher interest expenses and deferred debt costs than the year-ago period.
On a per-share basis, earnings were unchanged at 11 cents a share as the most recent period had fewer shares outstanding. Revenue jumped 8.2 percent to $351.5 million.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 10 cents a share on revenue of $350 million.
Time Warner
Time Warner got a boost from its movie studio and cable TV networks in the last three months of the year, and the company expects growth to continue in 2012 even with the end of its lucrative Harry Potter franchise.
For the fourth quarter, Time Warner’s net income rose to $773 million, or 76 cents a share, compared with $769 million, or 68 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned 94 cents a share. That beat Wall Street’s expectations of 87 cents a share, according to a survey by FactSet. Revenue grew to $8.2 billion from $7.8 billion a year ago.
News Corp
Rupert Murdoch’s media company said Wednesday that net income grew by nearly two-thirds in the final quarter of 2011, despite expenses related to the ongoing phone-hacking investigation at its U.K. newspaper unit. The results topped analyst expectations polled by FactSet.
Net income in the three-month period that ended Dec. 31 rose to $1.06 billion, or 42 cents a share, from $642 million, or 24 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding one-time benefits and an $87 million charge it took related to government-led phone-hacking probes, adjusted earnings came to 39 cents a share.
CVS Caremark
Drugstore chain Walgreen’s loss of a big client is turning into its rival’s gain so far this year. A contract squabble between Walgreen and pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts has driven more customers to CVS pharmacies, prompting that company to raise its 2012 earnings forecast by 3 cents a share.
CVS Caremark earned $1.06 billion, or 81 cents a share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That compares with $1.03 billion, or 75 cents a share, in the final quarter of 2010. Adjusted earnings were 89 cents a share, in line with the average analyst forecast, according to FactSet.
Revenue rose 15 percent to $28.32 billion.
