(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)The third quarter earnings season has only just begun, and so far investors have been quite encouraged by the upbeat earnings trend.
Below we highlight few earnings stories for the week Oct 5 to Oct 9.
US aluminum giant Alcoa (NYSE:
AA) on Wednesday reported surprise fiscal third-quarter profit. The company earned $77 million, or 8 cents a share, compared to a profit of $268 million, or 33 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue declined 33% to $4.62 billion from last year's quarter. Excluding restructuring and special items, adjusted income from continuing operations for the 2009 third quarter was $39 million or $0.04 per share. Analysts, on average, had forecast Alcoa to lose 10 cents a share on revenue of $4.5 billion. In the recent quarter, Alcoa said its averaged realized price per metric ton of aluminum rose 18% to $1,972 from the quarter ended June 30. However, the price was down 33% from the year-ago quarter. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company forecast that global aluminum consumption will grow 11% for the last six months of the year compared to the first half of 2009.
Early on Thursday, food and beverage giant PepsiCo Inc.(NYSE:
PEP) said that its third-quarter net income rose 9% to $1.72 billion, or $1.09 a share, from $1.58 billion, or 99 cents a share, in the prior year period. Revenue declined 1.5% to $11.08 billion from $11.24 billion. Shares dropped 78 cents or 1.28% to $60.39. Excluding mark-to-market net gains/losses as well as PBG/PAS merger costs, core earnings for the quarter climbed to $1.71 billion or $1.08 per share from $1.69 billion or $1.06 per share in the prior year quarter. Analysts, on average, expected the company to earn $1.03 a share on revenue of $11.26 billion. Looking ahead, PepsiCo reaffirmed its full-year 2009 forecast for both net revenue and core earnings per share of mid- to high-single-digit constant currency growth over its 2008 core earnings of $3.68 a share. For fiscal 2010, the company targets an 11% to 13% growth rate for core constant currency earnings per share over expected fiscal 2009 core earnings.
Marriott International Inc. (NYSE:
MAR),the biggest US hotel chain, said Thursday that it swung to fiscal third quarter loss of $466 million or $1.31 per share, compared with earnings of $94 million, or 25 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Excluding impairment charges of $502 million, or $1.41 per share, restructuring costs and other items, adjusted income from continuing operations was $53 million, or 15 cents per share. Revenue dropped 17 percent to $2.47 billion.
