Robert, here's a stock that's benefiting from the internet...real earnings too.
>HOUSTON, April 12 (Reuters) - Enron Corp. <ENE.N>, North America's biggest gas and electricity marketer, said on Wednesday first-quarter earnings per share rose a better-than-expected 17.6 percent as Internet-based trading boosted core wholesale energy operations and profits rose at its energy outsourcing business.
Net income excluding non-recurring items rose 33.6 percent to $338 million, or 40 cents per diluted share, from $253 million, or 34 cents per share, in the same period of 1999.
Reported earnings per share exceeded Wall Street analysts' average forecast of 37 cents, according to data compiled by First Call/First Thomson Financial.
Revenues rose 72 percent to $13.1 billion from $7.6 billion while the volume of gas and electricity marketed by Enron rose 43 percent to 41.8 trillion British thermal unit equivalents a day.
"It was a blowout quarter, very good strength pretty much across the board. They beat our (earnings per share) estimate. We were at 37 (cents)," said Paine Webber analyst Ronald Barone.
Enron Chairman and Chief Executive Ken Lay said in a statement that strong growth in wholesale volumes was due in part to the company's EnronOnline Internet trading initiative.
Launched in late 1999, EnronOnline has notched up over 70,000 transactions with a gross value of $27 billion since then. During the first quarter EnronOnline accounted for 39 percent of Enron's wholesale transactions and 27 percent of wholesale volumes.
"I would say that going forward EnronOnline will be a significant driver of the the wholesale business," Barone said.
Profits before interest and taxes for the wholesale energy business rose to $419 million from $320 million.
The Enron Energy Services unit, which provides energy outsourcing for commercial and light industrial customers, added $3.7 billion in new retail contracts in the quarter and made a profit of $16 million.
During the first three quarters of 1999 the outsourcing business was still posting start-up losses, but in the final quarter of that year it posted a first profit of $7 million.
Enron said its new broadband telecommunications business had made good progress, further expanding its high-speed network and signing contracts worth $31 million during the quarter to deliver premium content and data. The broadband business broke even.
Enron began as a gas pipeline operator but has since emerged as a leading player in deregulated energy markets in the United States and Europe.
Its stock rose 55.4 percent in 1999 and so far this year it has risen a further 55.8 percent although it has recently traded below its 12-month peak of 78-1/16 of March 30.
Enron's 1999 revenues of $40.1 billion placed it 18th in Fortune magazine's rankings of the biggest U.S. companies. |
