Market briefing---Lane (medium)
Earning numbers---Bob (fast)
Focus on Scientific Atlanta--Matt (slow)
NYSE---Deb (fast)
>> welcome to “world financial report.” i’m lane bajardi. microsoft shares lower in the extended session right now. and with all the numbers we have, bob bowdon is on hand to bring us up to date.
>> thank you, lane. indeed. let’s get to some of those numbers. microsoft saying net income fell in the fiscal first quarter after the company started to treat stock options as expenses and that is one of the big news items here and explanations for the numbers they reported. they reported net income of 24 cents a share, down from 25 cents a share a year ago. and this year’s net income figure included six cents per share in those stock option costs. adding back in the six cents a share, you get the operating profits of 30 cents a share, a penny better than analysts expected, that survey by thomson financial. revenue came in at $8.22 billion, above the analyst figure of $8.08 billion and 6% higher than last year’s revenue figure. microsoft gave its fiscal second quarter earnings forecast, the current quarter, which include a six-cents per share options. you get a forecast of 29 to 30 cents a share, which exceeds the analyst estimate of 28 cents a share. the revenue forecast for the current quarter came in at 9.7 billion to $9.8 billion, beating the analyst estimate of $9.31 billion. right now, we saw the net income figure, nevertheless, lower, though, for this fiscal―i guess the previous quarter they’re calling, the fiscal first quarter and we see microsoft shares down 83 cents at $28.08. and lane, i want to read you a cup of things from the press release that came over the transem, as you might say. john conner, chief financial officer for microsoft saying, quote, while corporate i.t. spending was slow to improve this quarter, we saw strength across all of our consumer businesses, driving higher than expected revenue for the company. that is an important point to make as people are interested in microsoft being a barometer of reports for i.t. spending. i have this for you, they’ll have a webcast at 5:30 p.m. eastern time, which is about half an hour from now, at which point, people can dial into their website or listen to david bloom.
>> 27 minutes and―or listen to bloomberg.
>> 27 minutes away. scientific atlanta and j.d.s. uniphase have outperformed the market this is year, but they’re trading lower in extended hours action. matt nesto has been tracking the numbers.
>> lane, let’s start off with scientific atlanta. i like to go with the drama. shares are down 15% right now in after-hours trading. they’re below $30 a share. they closed up 3% in regular trade today at $3035.03. we’ve given back over $5 here since the results crossed the tape just about an hour ago. here are the numbers. and you can deduce from them what you will. if we look at the first quarter profit, it was 28 cents a share. that is verses the seven cents a year ago. so, a quadrupling of the profit there and a penny better than the estimate. so, where’s the problem? revenues also there. the first quarter revenues up 27% to $395 million, just below the thomson financial. if you read within the company’s statement, page three, you’ll see a quote that says compared to the preceding quarter, earnings declined by $4.7 million or 10%. so, a 10% quarterly sequential decline in profits for scientific atlanta. they make those settop boxes used in cable tv. they are the second largest maker of those behind shares of motorola. we’ve seen the stock triple year-to-date. it is giving back about 15% on concerns there. the number, although they beat the average, they were actually below the high end of the street, specifically lehman brothers, u.b.s. warburg and smith barney all had higher per-share estimates. so, a little bit of ref treat going on there. another one on the slides here today, j.d.s. uniphase, down about 6%. you see they’re 23 cents after hours. the stock closed up just about 1% in regular trade today. it is up 53% year-to-date. here are the numbers for you. the first quarter net loss coming in at two cents a share. that’s up, that’s an improvement from a seven-cent loss a year ago and matches the estimates from analysts at thomson financial. the sales down 23% to $147 million, just a bit light of the 150 the street was looking for. not providing a forecast, though, for the current quarter or beyond the current quarter, excuse me. the current quarter forecast is for a loss of two to three cents a share. the revenue at $140 to $150, which would be unchanged or little changed going forward. and lastly, mckesson, the profit climbing there. you see the shares little changed in after hours trade, extended trade. the fiscal second quarter net income was 53 cents a share. up from 42 cents a year ago. 52 was the estimate. so, a bit of improvement there. revenues up 14% at $9 1 -- 11.8 billion, just slightly better than the thomson financial estimate. that’s it. three movers after hours. back to you.
>> all right. computer related stocks limited the gains in today’s session, but third quarter earnings is still the main main focus here. deborah kostroun is at the new york stock exchange.
>> we did see a few diamonds in the rough-in today’s session, even though the market pretty much even throughout most of the session. you saw up 14, down 14 and really is the earnings that is really kind of taking center stage. peter sarento with bartlett and company, he’s saying the market has gotten a little bit frothy and time to take money off the table. we’re starting to hear rumblings of this, just over the past week as we’re getting into the third quarter earnings, the mearkts really not showing a lot of direction and really kind of also shows us that money is not really pouring into the market, at least for right now. tech valuations getting a little bit ahead of themselves. that, however, according to barry james, he helps manage $600 million and he says you take a look at the valuations and the tech stocks , he says they’ve gotten ahead of themselves and he says that’s also causing money to come off the table a little bit. so, another comment about money coming off the table. also, drug stocks rebounding today. remember, yesterday we had so many of the pharmaceutical companies reporting their earnings. that was the biggest drag in the s&p 500, seeing a little bit of a turnaround in today’s session, especially on the lilly earnings that came out after the close of trading yesterday. also, astrazeneca reporting earnings. we did see many of the drug stocks performing well. as you can see, the drug stocks there. also semiconductors. this was the biggest drag. we were talking about this tech valuations. semis among the biggest losers in the s&p 500. kla-tencor, as they said that they had overestimated first quarter orders growth, that really kind of led thing lower in the semis and may be getting a little bit out of line. also, health care equipment. zimmer holdings. that stock actually hitting a records high in today’s session. zimmer holdings, this is the maker of artificial hips and knees, saying that their sales toward 31% as sales of their implants increased. medco, a spinoff of merck, they said third quarter profit climbed to 37 cents, compared to a year ago, performing quite well. home builders hitting record highs. the s&p home builder index, along with many of the home builders performing well on earnings from pulte, also sen tax a couple of days ago, increasing their 2004 earnings forecast. all hitting record highs. baaing to you in the studio.
>> deborah kostroun at the new york stock exchange. a mixed market on this thursday t. dow jones industrial average up 14 points at 9613. the s&p checking in at 1033. the nasdaq bode lower by 12 1/2 at 1885. big board volume, 1.6 million shares, above the six-month average and advancers and decliners nearly even. on the nasdaq, nearly two million shares changed hands. the wilshire 5000 was up 21 points. a quick look at bonds now t 10-year note down more than half a point, yields 4g.32% after a rally the previous day. the five-year note was down a quarter point. on the shortser end, you see the three year note down 5/32, the two-year now yieldsing 1.8%. there’s how currencies are moving in the pacific rim at the moment. the first day of the acquisition of concordes e.f.s. faces anti-trust hurdles. it was re-opened just a few moments ago, closing 20% lower. the u.s. justice department says the combination of the two a.t.m. networks would hurt competition for debit card transactions. it and seven states filed a lawsuit in washington seeking a preliminary injunction. the first day it pared its gains being up as much as $1.80 when the news first came out. coming up, a live update on the jury at the frank quattrone trial. we’ll head down to the courthouse after the break. we’ll take a look at where stocks may be headed now with chuck lieberman, chief investment officer at advisers financial center. he’ll be with us after this break to tell us what he sees, so stay with us. you’re watching “world financial report.”
