Earnings Recap: ABB Ltd, Dr Pepper Snapple, Motorola Solutions & Lorillard
ABB Ltd (ADR)(NYSE:ABB) shares slid about 4% in premarket trading despite the company reported better than estimated first quarter earnings. ABB Ltd said that it earned $685 million on revenue of $8.84 billion in its first quarter, ahead of analysts’ estimates of $674 million on revenue of $10.37 billion. ABB said it is looking to profitable growth in 2012 and also improve operating margin, which fell to 11.8% from 12.1% a year earlier as the Zurich-company worked through a backlog of less profitable contracts.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE:DPS) reported that the company earned $102 million, or 48 cents a share for the first quarter, up from a year ago profit of $114 million or 50 cents a share last year. Net revenue during the quarter grew 2% year-over-year to $1.36 billion. Analysts were estimating the company to report
Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) reported that it net income slid to $157 million, or 49 cents a share, from $497 million, or $1.44 a share, a year ago quarter. Earnings from continuing operations grew 37% to $232 million, or 50 cents a share, from $169 million, or $1.07 a share, in the year-ago period. On an adjusted basis, the company would have earned 59 cents a share, up from 54 cents a share. Revenue increased by 7% to $1.96 billion. Analysts were projecting the company to report a profit of 55 cents a share on revenue of $1.93 billion.
Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO) shares slumped 5.74% to $127.08 as the company reported lower than estimated first quarter earnings. The company said that it earned $223 million or $1.70 per share, down 10.10% from a year ago profit of $248 million $1.71 per share. Revenue during the quarter fell 0.6% to $1.53 billion from the year-earlier quarter. Analysts were estimating the company to report $1.99 a share on revenue of $1.2 billion. A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter breaks a four-quarter streak of revenue increases. The best quarter in that span was the first quarter of the last fiscal year, which saw revenue rise 12.9%.
Gross margin went down 1.1 percentage points to 34.3%. The change appeared to be caused by costs, which went up 1.1% from the year-earlier quarter, while revenue fell 0.6%.