Aided by sale of NDS shares, News Corp. triples earnings

News Corp. said Tuesday that net income for the latest quarter tripled from a year ago, reflecting a one-time gain from the sale of its stake in digital video technology company NDS. Revenue rose 2 percent, thanks to growth at pay TV networks such as Fox News Channel.

The company controlled by CEO Rupert Murdoch said that fiscal first-quarter net income came to $2.23 billion, or 94 cents per share, compared with $738 million, or 28 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding about $1.38 billion in special gains, largely due to the NDS sale, adjusted earnings came to 43 cents per share, beating the 37 cents expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue of $8.14 billion was roughly in line with the $8.15 billion that analysts were looking for.

Shares rose 72 cents, or 3 percent, to $25 in after-hours trading following the release of results. In the regular session, shares closed up 36 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $24.28.

The company said that included in the one-time impacts, charges related to the phone hacking scandal in Britain came to $67 million, up from $17 million a year earlier.

At its U.S. pay TV networks, advertising revenue rose 8 percent, led by Fox News and its regional sports networks. Fees from distributors rose 16 percent domestically. The segment was again the company’s most profitable, generating operating profit of $953 million on $2.45 billion in revenue.

 

CVS reports healthy quarter, raises outlook for full year

CVS Caremark Corp. said Tuesday that its third-quarter earnings climbed 16 percent. The drugstore operator and pharmacy benefits manager posted revenue increases in both businesses, benefiting from new customers lured away from rivals, and raised its full-year earnings outlook.

The Woonsocket, R.I., company said it earned $1.01 billion, or 79 cents per share, in the three months that ended Sept. 30. That compares with earnings of $868 million, or 65 cents per share, in last year’s quarter. Adjusted earnings were 85 cents per share, 2 cents better than analysts expected. That excluded $121 million for the gradual writedown of acquisition-related assets.

Revenue jumped 13 percent to $30.2 billion, above the $30.09 billion analysts expected.

CVS said revenue from pharmacy services climbed 22 percent to $18.1 billion, mainly because of new client starts, growth of its Medicare Part D prescription program and higher medication prices. The segment processed about 255 million prescription claims in the quarter, up 11 percent.

Revenue from drugstores rose 5.5 percent to $15.5 billion, as revenue at stores open at least a year rose 4.3 percent from a year earlier. They filled about 210 million prescriptions in the quarter, up 12 percent, when counting 90-day prescriptions as three monthly prescriptions.

The retail and pharmacy services segments have some overlapping revenue, so their total exceeds company revenue by a few billion dollars.

 

Despite higher profit, Nissan predicting weakness ahead

Nissan’s quarterly profit rose nearly 8 percent, but the Japanese automaker lowered its full-year forecasts Tuesday because of a sales slump in China and weakness in Europe.

Nissan Motor Co. reported a July-September net profit of $1.3 billion, slightly better than the $1.2 billion profit forecast by analysts surveyed by FactSet. Quarterly sales improved 5.5 percent to $30 billion.

Anti-Japanese sentiment has flared in recent months in China over a group of tiny islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by Beijing, setting off a boycott of Japanese products and some violent protests. Nissan’s sales are also being hit by an economic slowdown in Europe.

Yokohama-based Nissan, which makes the March subcompact, Leaf electric car and the Infiniti luxury model, said it now expects a $4 billion profit for the business year ending March 2013, down 6 percent from the year before. It had previously expected to rake in $5 billion in net profit for the year.

Nissan lowered its vehicle sales forecast as well, to 5.08 million vehicles from 5.35 million vehicles.

That’s still better than the 4.85 million vehicles it sold the previous year when, like other Japanese automakers, Nissan was hurt by the parts supply disruptions caused by the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

 

BMW sets sales record with boost from sales in China

Strong sales of its luxury cars in China helped Germany’s BMW AG overcome weak markets in crisis-ridden Europe.

Net profit rose 16 percent in the third quarter to $1.65 billion on a 13.7 percent jump in sales to a record $24 billion.

The Munich-based carmaker said Tuesday it was sticking to its forecasts for 2012 sales and earnings to be up on the previous year despite “an increasingly uncertain market environment.”

CEO Norbert Reithofer called it a “good third quarter,” but said the company and the auto sector as a whole “are likely to be confronted with adverse business conditions” in the fourth quarter.

Booming Asian sales helped the maker of the X5 sport utility vehicle and the 5-series sedan overcome a stagnant market in Europe. China sales rose 30 percent, while European sales grew by a modest 2.6 percent as sales sagged in southern Europe where the debt crisis is at its worst. Sales were even down slightly, by 0.5 percent, in BMW’s home market of Germany.