RBC profit higher on Q4 revenue growth December 4, 2009
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Canada’s largest bank has reported strong financial results for its fourth quarter and 2009 financial year.
Royal Bank of Canada saw its net income and revenues rise in the three months ended Oct. 31 on strong performance from its capital markets, Canadian banking and wealth management sectors.
The Toronto-based bank had net income of $1.2 billion for the quarter. That was up from year-ago profit of $1.1 billion.
Revenue for the quarter totalled $7.5 billion, up from $5.1 billion last year.
Diluted net earnings per share were 82 cents for the quarter, compared to 81 cents in last year’s fourth quarter.
For fiscal 2009, RBC recorded revenue of $29.1 billion, up from $21.6 billion in the previous year. Annual net income was $3.9 billion, down from $4.6 billion in 2008.
The Canadian Press, 2009
CIBC reports higher Q4 profit December 4, 2009
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CIBC says its core businesses performed well in the fourth quarter despite a recessionary economy.
The Toronto-based bank reported net income of $644 million or $1.56 per share for the quarter ended Oct. 31. That was up from year-ago profit of $436 million or $1.06 per share.
Revenues totalled $2.9 billion for the quarter, compared with $2.2 billion last year.
CIBC says it managed down its structured credit and other run-off portfolios in the quarter, which helped its performance.
The bank says its results were boosted by an $85 million gain on structured credit run-off activities and $62 million in favourable tax-related items.
Quarterly earnings were also affected by $42 million of negative valuation adjustments and $36 million of mark-to-market losses on credit derivatives in its corporate loan hedging programs.
The Canadian Press, 2009
Canwest revenues, profit slump November 30, 2009
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Canwest Global Communications Corp., which is in the midst of a major restructuring, said Friday it lost $111 million in the three months ended in August.
Falling advertising sales pulled revenue down by 13 per cent to $624 million .
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Canwest Global Communications Corp. lost $111 million in the three months ended in August.(John Woods/Canadian Press)
Winnipeg-based Canwest, which owns the Global television network and the National Post newspaper among other media assets, has several of its subsidiaries under court protection from creditors.
The fourth-quarter loss was an improvement over the same period a year ago, when it lost $1.02 billion.
On an operational basis ? before subtracting special charges ? Canwest posted a profit of $25 million in the fourth quarter, off from $60 million a year earlier.
For its entire fiscal 2009, Canwest posted operating earnings of $310 million, down from $551 million one year earlier.
An operating profit essentially means the company makes money from running its usual businesses and is a different measure of financial performance than net profit or loss number.
Ads shrivel
Canwest, like many media organizations, suffered a drop-off in such sales during the recession of late 2008 and early 2009.
In the fourth quarter, the Winnipeg-headquartered company, which received bankruptcy court protection for its broadcast TV holdings in October, saw overall revenue slump to $624.4 million, down from $720.6 million in the last quarter of 2008.
In addition, the company said fourth-quarter revenue fell by seven per cent in its conventional television business and by 20 per cent on the publishing side of the company, which includes a stable of newspapers not included in Canwest’s filing for protection from creditors.
Nevertheless, company executives maintained that Canwest’s various media arms outperformed many of their competitors.
“While the abrupt and unprecedented decline in advertising revenue had a significant impact on Canwest, most business units continued to perform better than the industry average, with online and specialty television reporting growth even in the face of the recession,” said president and chief executive officer Leonard Asper.
Cost-cutting helped Canwest’s financial performance somewhat as the company slashed 1,372 jobs during the year.
As a result, Canwest cut its overall costs by 13 per cent.
Loblaw profit up on flat sales November 17, 2009
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Loblaw Cos. Ltd. posted 20 per cent higher profits in the latest quarter despite flat sales, thanks to improved supply chain efficiencies at the grocery chain.
Canada’s largest supermarket operator said Tuesday it earned net income of $189 million or 69 cents a share for the quarter ended Oct. 10.
Jasmin Monroe wheels groceries out of the Loblaws store in Brossard, Que. The company posted improved earnings on flat sales Tuesday.(Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)
That was well above last year’s level of $157 million or 57 cents per share.
Total revenue came in at $9.47 billion for the quarter, compared with $9.49 billion last year.
The profit bested Bay Street expectations of 62 cents per share before one-time items, but revenue was short of the $9.62 billion that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting.
And the company warned that sales and profit margins face continuing challenges from slack food-price inflation, intense competition and long-term infrastructure and renovation spending.
Loblaw, whose banners include No Frills, Zehrs, Fortinos and Real Canadian Superstores, said the quarter’s bottom line was negatively affected by a one-time charge of $25 million related to an information technology and supply chain investment.
“As we progressed through the third quarter, our sales were increasingly impacted by the significant decline in inflation and the ramp-up of our pricing investments,” executive chairman Galen Weston Jr. said.
Same-store sales fell 0.6 per cent in the quarter despite Thanksgiving holiday sales that helped boost the top line, the company said.
Loblaw recently acquired Asian-focused T&T Supermarket Inc. for $225 million. That transaction closed during the recently completed quarter but was not a factor in earnings, the company said.
Toyota returns to profit November 5, 2009
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Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it returned to a profit in the latest quarter and trimmed its projected red ink for the year, underlining the gradual recovery underway for Japan’s giant automakers.
The world’s largest car company reported a better-than-expected $257 million Cdn profit for the July-September period after three straight quarterly losses, citing stronger sales boosted by government incentives.
The result marked an 84 per cent plunge from the $1.65 billion profit racked up during the same period a year ago, but offered evidence Toyota was starting to heal after posting its worst loss ever in the last fiscal year.
Other Japanese automakers have made similar strides recently, with Toyota rivals Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. both reporting healthier earnings after taking a battering from the global economic crisis.
Toyota said it now expects to sell more vehicles for the fiscal year through March 2010, raising its projections to 7.03 million vehicles from 6.6 million.
The revised forecast still marks a seven per cent drop from the more than 7.5 million vehicles Toyota had sold around the world in the fiscal year ended March 31, though sales were growing in Japan and the rest of Asia compared with a year ago.
The company, which makes the Prius hybrid and the Corolla subcompact, said sales in the last six months were proving better than earlier expectations as government efforts to attract more buyers spur global demand.
Toyota forecast a smaller loss for the fiscal year of about $2.36 billion ? less than half the $5.31 billion of red ink it had predicted earlier.
The Canadian Press, 2009
TSX plunges despite strong profit reports October 28, 2009
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Investors shrugged off positive earnings reports from Rogers Communications and Canadian Pacific rail on Tuesday, driving the Toronto Stock Exchange well into negative territory.
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange last month. Despite positive earnings reports, investors kept major North American indexes down on Tuesday.(Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press
The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed at 11,053.5, down 181.34 points from Monday’s finish. The decline was broad-based, with all but two of the index’s eight sub-indexes trading lower on the day.
The lone exceptions were the energy and telecommunications sectors.
The benchmark Canadian index has shed 480 points in the last three trading days.
Three-month stock chart for Rogers on the TSX.(CBC)
The Canadian dollar finished up .08 of a cent to 93.8 cents US after a stronger greenback pushed the loonie down about 1.3 cents US on Monday.
Rogers shares ended up $1.40 at $31.50 after the telecom company reported quarterly net income of $485 million or 79 cents a share, compared to year-earlier earnings of $495 million or 78 cents a share.
After adjustments, net income totalled $505 million or 82 cents a share, up from 73 cents a year earlier and well above analysts’ expectations of 54 cents per share. Revenue at the wireless division was up seven per cent, fuelled by growth in postpaid subscriptions attributed to the popularity of the Apple iPhone.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said that third-quarter net income rose to $195.4 million or $1.16 cents a share, up from $170.7 million or $1.10 cents a share a year ago. However, revenue fell to under $1.1 billion from more than $1.3 billion a year ago and its shares lost $2.45 to trade at $46.28 in the afternoon.
With files from The Canadian Press (more…)
Agrium warns of Q3 profit plunge October 26, 2009
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Agrium 3-month TSX chart
Fertilizer producer Agrium Inc. warned Friday that its third-quarter profit will be 90 to 95 per cent lower than last year’s third-quarter results.
Agrium reported a profit of $2.31 US a share last year as high grain prices helped to bolster demand for fertilizers. A profit drop of 90 to 95 per cent would translate into earnings of 12 to 23 cents US a share.
The Calgary-based company blamed “significantly lower prices and margins” for all of the fertilizers it produces, especially phosphate and potash.
In a statement, Agrium said margins have been squeezed and its fungicide sales declined 40 per cent this summer.
It said U.S. customers are increasingly saying they’ll soon revert to their normal fertilizer application levels “particularly now that corn prices have increased again to well above historic levels.”
Agrium said it was well positioned for what it called a “strong recovery” in demand in 2010.
“If the wet weather in the U.S. continues and shortens the fall application season, it is expected to push fall nutrient demand into the spring of 2010,” the company said in a statement.
Agrium will provide final third-quarter financial results on Nov. 4.
Shares fall 7 per cent
Agrium shares were down $4.12 to $55.61 at the close of TSX trading Friday, but were still twice their 52-week low of $28.70.
Agrium’s profit warning followed similarly gloomy reports from other fertilizer makers, which have been hobbled by a global financial crisis as well as lower grain prices in the last year.
On Thursday, Saskatoon-based Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan reported third-quarter earnings that came in 80 per cent lower than last year’s as sales fell by more than two-thirds.
The world’s biggest fertilizer producer said low crop prices had slashed demand for crop nutrients like potash.
“The agricultural industry has not yet broken free of this uncertainty,” Potash Corp. CEO Bill Doyle told a conference call.
Potash Corp. shares closed at $105.84 in Friday afternoon trading on the TSX, down $2.24.
Microsoft shares soar despite profit drop October 23, 2009
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Software maker Microsoft reported a drop in net income of 18 per cent in the latest quarter.
Profit dropped to $3.6 billion US, or 40 cents per share, compared to $4.4 billion, or 48 cents per share, in the same period in 2008.
Revenue sank 14 per cent to $12.9 billion US, but most of that resulted from an accounting decision. Microsoft recorded only half the revenue from sales of its Windows operating system sales for the period.
3-month chart for Microsoft
It has been running a promotional offer that lets new PC buyers load Vista and then install its new Windows 7 system, which it launched Thursday, for free later. It’ll record the other half of the revenue from those sales by January as the buyers upgrade.
Investors ignored that, knowing that otherwise, earnings would have been up eight per cent.
Microsoft shares hit a one-year high of $29.23 US in morning trading on the NASDAQ, before falling back. They were up $1.95 US, or seven per cent, at $28.54 US.
Potash Corp. shares fall on lower profit outlook September 22, 2009
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Shares in Potash Corp. fell Monday after the Saskatoon, Sask.-based company lowered its profit forecast for 2009.
The company, the world’s largest potash producer, said late on Sept. 18 that it expected demand from farmers for its fertilizer to slow, lowering earnings to between $3.25 to $3.75 US a share. Potash Corp. reports in U.S. dollars.
World demand for fertilizer is expected to fall this year.(CBC)
The company’s previous forecast had been for a profit of $4 to $5 a share. The company also reduced its forecast for global potash industry sales in 2010 to a range of between 50 and 55 million metric tonnes. It had predicted 55 to 60 million in July.
The company’s shares fell $4.05 ? or 4.2 per cent ? to $93.09 US on the New York Stock Exchange, although it regained a little of that in after-hours trading. The price of Potash stock has gained 27 per cent this year.
Potash Corp., 3-month chart
Shares of Mosaic Co., North America?s second-largest fertilizer producer, lost $2.84 US, or 5.2 per cent, to close at $51.41 in New York. Calgary-based Agrium Inc., the third-largest in North America, dropped $1.57 Canadian, or 2.7 per cent, to $55.67 in Toronto trading.
Laurentian Bank Q3 profit dips September 4, 2009
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Third-quarter profit stumbled at Laurentian Bank without the income from last year’s sale of the Montreal Exchange and as its retail and small-business unit suffered.
The Montreal-based bank reported Thursday that income for the three months ended July 31 was $28.7 million, or $1.08 per share, compared with profits of $30.9 million, or $1.17 per share, for the same period last year. The bank’s bottom line was boosted in 2008 by $11 million from the sale of shares in the Montreal Exchange, partly offset by an increase in loan-loss provisions.
Excluding the one-time items, quarterly profit would have grown 13 per cent year-over-year, Laurentian said.
“Economic and credit conditions remain challenging,” CEO Réjean Robitaille said in a statement. “However, our prudent approach has served us well to date and the quality of our assets remains solid.”
Revenues were up three per cent to 176.7 million for the quarter from 171.1 million a year ago, the bank said.
The results blew away the expectations of analysts, who had forecast adjusted earnings of 88 cents a share on revenues of $162 million, according to Thomson Reuters. Laurentian’s shares were up 4.6 per cent to $37.90 in midday trading in Toronto.
The bank’s income was driven by a 44 per cent profit leap in its real estate and commercial division, held in check by a 16 per cent retreat in its retail and small-business unit.
Provisions for loan losses were down to $16 million for the quarter from $18.5 million in the year-ago period, suggesting the threat of tainted mortgages and defaulting debtors has abated somewhat as the overall economy pulls out of the recession.
Laurentian said its Tier 1 capital ratio, an important measure of the financial stability of banks, stood at 10.8 per cent for first nine months of fiscal 2009. It also reported no holdings in asset-backed commercial paper as of the latest quarter, and $34 million in total asset-backed securities on its books.
Laurentian held its common-share dividend steady at 34 cents.
