Earnings Roundup

EMC Corp., the world’s biggest maker of storage computers, reported second-quarter sales and profit that beat analysts’ estimates as demand for its machines started to pick up. The shares rose 4.1 percent.

Second-quarter net income fell to $205.2 million, or 10 cents a share, from $360.1 million, or 17 cents, a year earlier.

Excluding some items, though, earnings were 18 cents a share, the Hopkinton company said, exceeding the 16 cents analysts had predicted. Sales were $3.26 billion, up 3.4 percent from the first quarter. Analysts had projected sales of $3.2 billion.

But the company said “business predictability’’ is improving, signaling that customers aren’t slashing budgets any further. And David Bailey, an analyst at Goldman Sachs Group, said there are signs demand is starting to “stabilize.’’

This month, EMC agreed to buy Santa Clara, Calif.-based Data Domain Inc. after a two-month bidding war with NetApp Inc., gaining technology that lets customers use less disk space when storing information. EMC said it expected the $2.1 billion acquisition to be completed yesterday.

Full-year profit, excluding reorganization and acquisition costs, will be 82 cents a share, EMC predicted. Sales will be $13.8 billion, including a $200 million contribution from Data Domain. Analysts project earnings of 77 cents on sales of $13.4 billion and forecast sales will start rising next year.

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Raytheon Co., the world’s largest missile maker, said second-quarter profit rose 15 percent on higher sales of air-defense systems. Full-year profit will exceed the company’s prior forecast.

Net income exceeded analysts’ estimates, rising to $489 million, or $1.23 a share, from $426 million, or 99 cents, a year earlier, Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon said. Sales rose 4.3 percent to $6.13 billion.

Analysts had estimated earnings of $1.13 a share. Analysts, on average, predicted sales of $6.18 billion, from $5.87 billion.

Raytheon in June completed a review of its new sea-based missile, the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA program, with the United States and Japan, allowing the defense contractor to continue preliminary design.

The interceptor would be launched from destroyers equipped with the Aegis air-defense systems.

Full-year per-share profit from continuing operations is now forecast at $4.60 to $4.75, 5 cents a share higher than Raytheon’s April forecast. Raytheon was projected to report earnings per share of $4.72, the average estimate of the Bloomberg survey.

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Helped by a lightened debt load, Ford Motor Co. posted a surprise second-quarter profit of $2.3 billion, following the worst loss in company history a year earlier. Shares rose 9 percent in afternoon trading.

The profit ends a string of four straight quarterly losses for the nation’s second-largest automaker, which has gained US market share at the expense of cross-town rivals Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co., both of which spent time under bankruptcy court supervision. Ford last went into the black in the first quarter of 2008, with a profit of $70 million.

However, excluding its debt reduction and other items, Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford would have reported a quarterly loss, though smaller than Wall Street expected.

Ford reported second-quarter net income of 69 cents a share, compared with a loss of $8.7 billion, or $3.89 a share, for the same quarter a year ago.

Aaron Bragman, an analyst for the consulting firm IHS Global Insight, attributed Ford’s progress to restructuring and product improvements made under chief executive Alan Mulally, who was hired away from aircraft giant Boeing Co. in 2006. Mulally also made the decision to borrow the money before the credit markets froze.

Excluding items such as the debt reduction, Ford would have lost $424 million, or 21 cents a share. Those results still beat analysts’ expectations of a per share loss of 50 cents on revenue of $24.7 billion. Excluding special items, the company lost just over $1 billion in the second quarter of last year.

Revenue was $27.2 billion, 40 percent less than a year earlier, as the worldwide auto sales slump continued.

Ford spent $1 billion more in cash than it earned in the quarter, a 73 percent reduction from the $3.7 billion it spent in the first quarter.

Ford also raised $1.6 billion by selling 345 million more shares during the quarter, and said it is likely to take further steps this year to lower debt and raise cash.

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Microsoft Corp. said its profit in the last quarter plunged 29 percent because of weak computer sales, ending a fiscal year in which the software maker’s revenue fell for the first time since the company went public in 1986. Revenue in the quarter was well short of analysts’ expectations.

Microsoft’s earnings sank to $3.05 billion, or 34 cents per share, from $4.3 billion, or 46 cents per share, in the same period last year.

Because some people are buying Windows Vista computers now and will get upgrades to the next operating system at no charge, Windows 7, in October, Microsoft deferred $276 million of Windows revenue. That cut its profit by 2 cents per share.

Earnings were also hurt by legal charges, severance charges, and the declining value of its investments. Excluding all those items, Microsoft would have beaten Wall Street’s expectations by 2 cents per share.

Microsoft’s quarterly sales dropped 17 percent to $13.1 billion. Even if the company had not deferred part of its Windows revenue, it still would have missed the Street view by a wide berth. Analysts were looking for $14.4 billion in sales.

For the full fiscal year, which ended June 30, the company’s profit fell 17 percent to $14.6 billion, or $1.62 per share, from $17.7 billion, or $1.87 per share in the year-ago quarter. Sales sank 3 percent to $58.4 billion.

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Amazon.com Inc. reported a decline in second-quarter profit and sales that missed estimates after discounts failed to spur as much growth as predicted.

Net income fell to $142 million, or 32 cents a share, from $158 million, or 37 cents, a year earlier, the Seattle-based company said. Sales were $4.65 billion. Analysts predicted profit of 32 cents a share and sales of $4.7 billion.

Amazon.com, the world’s largest Internet retailer, has cut prices and added products, such as low-cost notebooks. Its low prices and free-shipping offers have started to eat into profit, said Aaron Kessler, an analyst at Kaufman Brothers LP.

Amazon.com also announced plans Wednesday to buy the shoe site Zappos.com Inc., in the biggest acquisition in Amazon’s history.

“Their aggressive pricing strategy has worked in terms of them being able to grow sales nicely this year, although that’s weighed on margins,’’ Kessler said. The San Francisco-based analyst has a hold rating on the shares.

Sales in the third quarter will be $4.75 billion to $5.25 billion, Amazon.com said. That compares with the $4.95 billion predicted by analysts. Operating income will be $120 million to $210 million in the period, the company said.

Amazon.com’s sales may climb 17 percent this year to $22.5 billion, according to analysts.

That would outpace the broader e-commerce market, which market research firm Forrester Research Inc. expects to grow 11 percent.

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