Several companies report- ed quarterly earnings Tuesday.
Cisco Systems
Networking gear provider Cisco Systems Inc. exceeded Wall Street estimates with fiscal fourth-quarter profit that was almost the same as in the year-ago period, before the company introduced significant accounting changes.
Net income for the three months ended July 29 was $1.544 billion, or 25 cents per share, compared with $1.540 billion, or 24 cents per share, in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2005.
Quarterly sales at Cisco, one of the world's largest makers of routers, switches and other devices that connect computers to the Internet, rose to $7.98 billion from $6.6 billion in the same quarter of 2005. The company, based in San Jose, Calif., also produces digital subscriber line and cable broadband equipment, Voice over Internet Protocol telephone service products and network management software.
Clear Channel
Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation's largest operator of radio stations, said its second-quarter earnings fell more than 10 percent as higher operating costs offset a gain in revenue.
Net income fell to $197.5 million, or 39 cents per share, in the three months ended June 30 from $220.7 million, or 40 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
Analysts were looking for profit of 41 cents per share in the most recent quarter, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.
Revenue rose 7 percent to $1.85 billion from $1.72 billion a year earlier, beating analysts' estimates for $1.8 billion.
News Corp.
News Corp.'s earnings rose 19 percent as stronger results from cable networks, broadcast television and movies outweighed a slump in newspapers, the media company reported.
News Corp., the global media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, earned $852 million in the three months ended June 30, the final quarter of its fiscal year, up from $717 million in the same period a year earlier.
That worked out to 24 cents per Class B share, versus 19 cents per share a year ago.
Revenue rose 11 percent to $6.78 billion from $6.11 billion.
Watson Pharmaceuticals
Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., the drugmaker awaiting U.S. approval of its purchase of Andrx Corp., reported a second-quarter loss of $15.6 million as the company wrote down the value of two drugs.
The net loss equals 15 cents a share, compared with net income of $40.4 million, or 35 cents, a year earlier, said the company based in Corona, Calif. Revenue rose 23 percent to $510.4 million.
The company had costs of $41.6 million after taxes to write down the value of rights to Actigall, a gall-bladder medication that Watson acquired in 2002 from Novartis AG, and for the Alora estrogen patch.
Contributing: Bloomberg News; The Associated Press