Sun Co. said its profit rose 6.6%...
Sun Co. said its profit rose 6.6% in the second quarter, spurred by rising gasoline prices, but Shell Oil reported a 19.4% decline in earnings from the year before. Shell said falling oil prices were a big factor in its lower earnings. Sun said the increase in earnings for the April-June quarter was due to a dramatic turnaround in its sales of refined petroleum products such as gasoline. Shell said that crude oil production was up slightly but that the average selling price for domestic crude oil was down $1.36 a barrel from the first half of 1984. The company also noted that refinery profits fell because higher gasoline prices were offset by lower prices for jet fuel and heating oil.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber said 1985 second-quarter revenue declined 2.2%, resulting in a 20% drop in net earnings to $86.7 million. The Akron, Ohio-based firm attributed the results to a lower demand for private brand replacement tires in the United States, a glut of imported tires in the U.S. market and the eroding effect of the strong U.S. dollar on foreign sales.
Anheuser-Busch Cos. said its second-quarter profit rose 15% from a year earlier on a 7.7% revenue gain. Anheuser-Busch, whose beers include Budweiser, Michelob and Busch, said second-quarter beer shipments rose 6.5% to 18.2 million barrels from 17.1 million a year ago.
Continental Airlines reported record revenue and net income for any quarter and six-month period in the carrier’s 50-year history. The airline said its second-quarter results were helped in part by the United Airlines strike in May. The company also reported that its capacity, load factors and revenue per available seat mile were all up.
General Foods said its profit fell 30.5% in the first quarter of its fiscal year from the same period a year earlier, which included a gain of $98.3 million from the sale of its Gaines Pet Foods business and a $21-million loss from restructuring some of its operations. Nabisco Brands said its second-quarter profit rose 1.3% on a 2% decline in revenue. Nabisco Brands blamed the revenue decline on the divestiture of its Netherlands subsidiary, Van Nelle B.V., and on the strength of the U.S. dollar.
Colgate-Palmolive said its second-quarter profit fell 7.2% from a year earlier as revenue slipped 2.1%. However, the maker of consumer and health-care products said the year-earlier period included $8.8 million in one-time gains. Excluding those gains, Colgate-Palmolive said its earnings rose 11% in the latest quarter. The company, which does about half its business in foreign markets, said its sales were limited by the strength of the dollar against other major currencies.
Wang Laboratories, citing costs of recent staff cuts and a general slowing of sales in the computer industry, reported a $109-million loss in its fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30. The loss compared with earnings of $73.7 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue declined 11% from a year earlier. For the year, Wang’s earnings fell 92%, while revenue rose 8% from a year earlier. Wang said results for the quarter and the year were also adversely affected by the strength of the dollar overseas and an industrywide slump.
JWT Group, parent of a leading advertising agency, reported that its second-quarter profit fell 6.9% despite an 11% rise in revenue. Revenue from commissions and fees rose 19% domestically but slipped 1% outside the United States. International results were hurt by the strength of the dollar, the company said. The firm said revenue growth was led by the U.S. operations of its J. Walter Thompson advertising unit, which were up 22% for the quarter. But the agency’s international commissions and fees grew by only 2% for the quarter.
