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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (11100)	2/18/2003 8:40:12 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Pre-Paid's 4th-Qtr Profit Rises, Commissions Decline (Update1) By Samantha Zee Ada, Oklahoma, Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc., which sells advice on contesting traffic tickets and other legal issues, said fourth-quarter profit rose after the company lowered the commission rate paid to its sales force. Net income rose to $9.66 million, or 51 cents a share, from $7.76 million, or 36 cents, in the same period a year earlier, according to a statement issued by PR Newswire. Revenue from membership fees rose 14 percent to $79.3 million from $69.7 million, while commissions rose just 2.4 percent to $27.7 million from $27.1 million. Pretax earnings would have been little changed if commissions had increased as much as sales. The Ada, Oklahoma-based company, which sells insurance policies that pay for some legal services, has about 1.38 million members who pay about $21 a month each. U.S. prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating trading in the company's shares before an announcement made Friday, Jan. 3, about a drop in Pre-Paid's membership levels. While revenue from memberships increased, the number of active members declined in the fourth quarter. Pre-Paid said in early January it lost 13 percent of its members in the fourth quarter, or 176,511, while recruiting 169,350 new members. Pre-Paid's shares fell more than 25 percent the Monday following the announcement. The company said it recruited 179,328 members in the fourth quarter of 2001. Company Chief Financial Officer Steve Williamson and spokeswoman Melanie Lawson didn't immediately return calls seeking comment. Pre-Paid shares rose $1.32 to $18 at 4:18 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The company's shares have dropped 31 percent this year. (To access the company's conference call to discuss its earnings at 8:30 a.m. New York time tomorrow, dial (913) 981-5517 or see {PPD US CWP }.