UPS predicts slower holiday season
ATLANTA -- UPS' growth in the fourth quarter, which includes the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, will be its slowest in four years due mostly to weak U.S. retail sales, the world's largest shipping carrier said Tuesday.
In particular, the Atlanta-based company expects to deliver more than 22 million packages on its peak shipping day of Dec. 19, which would be flat with last year's peak day, spokesman Norman Black said.
The news came as UPS reported a 3.7 percent increase in third-quarter profit on a modest rise in sales.
Chief Financial Officer Scott Davis said retail sales growth is "a wild card" heading into the holiday season, which is typically UPS' busiest shipping period of the year. International growth is expected to remain strong and help offset weaker U.S. conditions, executives said.
UPS earned $1.08 billion, or $1.02 a share, for the three months ended Sept. 30, up from $1.04 billion, or 96 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier.
Excluding a one-time charge related to the restructuring and disposal of certain operations in France within its supply chain and freight segment, UPS said it earned $1.11 billion, or $1.05 a share, in the third quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of $1.02 a share.
Revenue in the quarter rose 4.7 percent to $12.21 billion, from $11.66 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.
BP profit falls to $4.4 billion
LONDON -- BP PLC reported a 29 percent slump in third-quarter net profit on Tuesday due to higher maintenance costs and outages at key refineries, but some analysts said the worst might be over after a run of operational problems at Europe's second-largest oil company.
The company posted net profit of $4.4 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, down from $6.2 billion over the same period of 2006. Revenue rose 2.7 percent to $72.6 billion.
Quarterly replacement cost profit, which excludes changes in the value of crude inventories, measuring the amount it would cost to replace assets at current prices, fell 45 percent to $3.87 billion, compared with $6.98 billion in the same period last year.
Amazon.com sees rise in earnings
LOS ANGELES -- Online retailer Amazon.com Tuesday reported operating profit margins that concerned some analysts despite a sharp rise in quarterly earnings.
Despite bullish investor sentiment on the world's largest Internet retailer, some on Wall Street have warned recent gains in operating profit margin are not sustainable and more periods of investment spending at Seattle-based Amazon are inevitable.
Amazon said third-quarter net income more than quadrupled to $80 million, or 19 cents per share, from $19 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 41 percent to $3.26 billion.
The results beat average Wall Street estimates of 18 cents per share in profit on $3.13 billion in revenue, according to Reuters Estimates.
Operating income rose to $123 million from $40 million.
AT&T net income reaches $3.1 billion
SAN ANTONIO -- Catapulted by its acquisition of BellSouth Corp., AT&T on Tuesday reported net income of $3.1 billion in the third quarter, 42 percent higher than in the same period last year.
Revenue nearly doubled to $30.1 billion in July through September, from $15.6 billion a year earlier, including growth separate from the merger in its wireless business and its segment that caters to large business customers.
Excluding costs and major acquisitions, the company's earnings per share would have been 71 cents, in line with what analysts expected. Including those costs, earnings per share were 50 cents. Last year's third-quarter earnings worked out to 56 cents per share, on a profit of $2.2 billion, because the company had fewer shares outstanding.