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Technology Stocks : Lucent Technologies (LU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tommaso who wrote (5772)	1/22/1999 6:14:00 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21876

Lucent posts record first-quarter earnings; revenues concern analysts By Associated Press, 01/21/99 14:02 MURRAY HILL, N.J. (AP) - Lucent Technologies Inc. reported Thursday that first-quarter earnings nearly doubled, largely due to a one-time gain, but analysts expressed concern that revenues failed to meet their expectations. Still, they see no immediate threat to Lucent, the world's No. 1 phone equipment maker. ''This is the first bump in the road that they've hit. We'll see how they handle it,'' said Stephen D. Levy of Lehman Brothers. At midday, shares of Lucent were down $5.43, or 5 percent, at $110.06. James C. Kedersha of SG Cowen & Co. said the stock should bounce back within days, if not sooner. ''They seem pretty bullish ... and they should be. Telecom equipment is a great place to be,'' Kedersha said. Lucent said profits for the quarter ending Dec. 31 were $2.7 billion, or $2 a share on a diluted basis, compared with $792 million, or 61 cents, including one-time events, in same period a year earlier. The current results included a one-time gain of $1.3 billion, or 96 cents a share, due to a change in the company's pension and post-retirement benefit accounting and a one-time after-tax charge of $14 million, or 1 cent a share, for in-process research and development associated with the acquisition of Quadritek Systems Inc., a maker of Internet-related software. Excluding the one-time gain and after-tax charge, net income rose 26 percent to $1.4 billion, or $1.05 per share, compared to net income from a year earlier of $1.124 billion, or 86 cents a share, excluding one-time events. The first-quarter earnings results were slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations, according to First Call Corp.'s survey of analysts. Operating income for the quarter was $2.1 billion, up 16 percent from $1.8 billion a year ago, the company said. Revenues of $9.2 billion for the quarter, however, were ''significantly below'' the $10.3 billion that Lehman Brothers expected, Levy said. Levy and Kedersha said they accept the company's explanation that it had an additional $800 million in revenue that cannot be recorded until the next quarter. Richard McGinn, chairman and chief executive officer, said, ''Some revenue Lucent had expected to recognize at the end of the first quarter was delayed into the second quarter.'' The revenues, up 5.5 percent from a year earlier, were driven by sales of systems for network operators to U.S. and international service providers, Definity enterprise communication servers, and chips for high-speed communications. ''Lucent begins fiscal 1999 with a solid quarter, with record earnings and margins,'' McGinn said. Lucent last week announced it would buy Ascend Communications Inc. in an $18.7 billion stock deal that reflects the growing influence of the Internet on the telecommunications industry. The deal, which had been widely expected, followed Lucent's $1.5 billion agreement earlier in the week to purchase Kenan Systems Corp., which makes software for billing and customer service. Lucent includes the Bell Laboratories research and development operation. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -