Lehman Bros. Profit Up 13 Percent
biz.yahoo.com
Friday March 19, 11:54 am Eastern Time
NEW YORK (AP) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. [AMEX:CQP - news] reported a 13 percent jump in first-quarter profits, beating Wall Street's expectations, as the company made money trading stocks and bonds while reigning in expenses.
Lehman earned $211 million, or $1.57 a share, for the quarter ended Feb. 28, handily surpassing analysts' average estimate of $1.47 a share. In the year-ago period, Lehman earned $187 million, or $1.44 a share.
''Across the board, our businesses performed well, with fixed income and equities posting particularly strong results,'' Richard S. Fuld Jr., Lehman's chairman and chief executive, said Friday in a statement.
Net revenues for the most recent quarter were $1.12 billion, up 7 percent from $1.05 billion in the first quarter 1998.
The New York-based company underwrote three high-profile Internet stock offerings in February -- VerticleNet, Pacific Internet and Tut Systems -- which also helped improve the bottom line.
The second quarter is also showing signs of strength. Lehman already has $10 billion in stock offerings in its underwriting pipeline.
Controlling costs also paid off in the first quarter. Non-interest expenses rose 5 percent, but excluding personnel-related costs, they were flat, despite continued investments in several divisions and increased technology expenditures to related to the year 2000. |
