Earnings roundup

Genzyme Corp., said profit fell 87 percent as a plant closure restricted drug supplies. The company lowered its forecast for 2009.

Third-quarter net income fell to $16 million, or 6 cents a share, from $119.6 million, or 42 cents, a year earlier, the Cambridge company said. Earnings excluding some costs missed by 12 cents the average 43 cent estimate of 18 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Genzyme, the world’s largest maker of drugs for rare genetic disorders, said in June it would ration two drugs, Cerezyme and Fabrazyme, after the company shut its Allston Landing plant in Boston to decontaminate after detecting a virus called Vesivirus 2117. Most of Genzyme’s medicines treat hereditary disorders caused by lack of enzymes needed for critical bodily functions. Drug shortages should end next year, Genzyme said.

“They were not so great across the board,’’ said Brian Abrahams, an analyst for Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.

Genzyme lowered its full-year forecast of earnings excluding some costs to $2.26, down from $2.35 to $2.90 a share on July 22.

Revenue fell to $1.06 billion, from $1.16 billion in the same period a year earlier.

VMware Inc., the biggest maker of programs that let computers run multiple operating systems, reported third-quarter sales and profit that beat analysts’ estimates and forecast better-than-expected sales this quarter.

Profit excluding some costs was 24 cents a share, topping the 20 cents projected by analysts on average in a Bloomberg survey. Sales rose 3.7 percent to $489.8 million, exceeding the $473.6 million predicted by analysts, the company.

Customers are turning to VMware’s so-called virtualization software because it can help them save money on server computers used to run corporate networks. About 96 percent of companies polled by New York-based brokerage ISI Group said they are no longer delaying spending on such software.

Sales will be $540 million to $560 million in the fourth quarter, the Palo Alto, Calif., company forecast. Analysts had projected revenue of $521 million. First-quarter sales will be lower than in the fourth quarter, according to the company’s forecast.

VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corp. of Hopkinton.

EBay Inc., the most visited US e-commerce site, forecast fourth-quarter profit that missed some analysts’ estimates after shifting into faster-growing but less lucrative businesses.

Excluding some costs, earnings will be 38 cents to 40 cents a share, the San Jose, Calif.-based company said. The midpoint of that range missed the 40 cents predicted by analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

EBay has sought to revive growth amid sluggish consumer spending and mounting competition from sites such as Amazon.com Inc.

Third-quarter net income declined to $349.7 million, or 27 cents a share, from $492.2 million, or 38 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose to $2.24 billion. Analysts had estimated $2.14 billion. Excluding some items, earnings were 38 cents a share, compared with the 37 cents predicted by analysts.

Sales this quarter will be $2.2 billion to $2.3 billion, eBay said. Analysts had projected $2.26 billion.

Robot maker iRobot Corp. said its third-quarter profit declined as revenue fell, but the results beat Wall Street’s expectations.

For the three months ended Sept. 26, the Bedford company earned $2.6 million, or 10 cents per share, down 33 percent from $3.9 million, or 15 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue fell 15 percent to $78.6 million from $92.4 million.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 2 cents per share on sales of $77.8 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

The company forecast fourth-quarter earnings of 9 cents to 13 cents per share on sales of $98 million to $108 million.

Analysts expect a profit of 16 cents per share on sales of $98.3 million.

Morgan Stanley rose on the New York Stock Exchange after an increase in risk-taking boosted trading revenue and contributed to the bank’s first profit in a year.

Third-quarter earnings were $757 million, or 38 cents a share, compared with $7.7 billion, or $6.97, a year earlier, the New York-based company said. The average estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for earnings per share of 30 cents.

Chief executive John Mack, who plans to hand off his CEO duties to copresident James Gorman at the end of the year, increased risk-taking after profit in the first half of 2009 fell short of competitors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Value-at-Risk, a measure of how much the bank estimates it could lose in a single day of trading, climbed to $118 million, the highest level in at least seven quarters.

Morgan Stanley, which has more than doubled this year in New York trading, is still below where it traded 13 months ago before Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bankrupt.

Revenue at Morgan Stanley fell to $8.7 billion from $18 billion a year earlier. Book value per share declined to $27.05 from $27.21 at the end of June. The firm’s return on equity, a measure of how well it reinvests earnings, was 5.8 percent.

Morgan Stanley’s revenue was cut by about $900 million because of an accounting charge related to an improvement in the firm’s debt, which increases the value of its liabilities. The firm has another $1.2 billion of writedowns before it unwinds all the gains it booked last year when the value of the firm’s debt plunged, chief financial officer Colm Kelleher said.