Report on Earnings Jump Follows Emulex Shake-Up

One day after announcing a management shake-up and reorganization, Costa Mesa-based Emulex on Tuesday reported sharply higher sales and earnings for its latest quarter.

The computer products company reported a more than fivefold increase in net income for its fiscal 1988 second quarter, to $2.36 million, from $379,000 during the year-earlier quarter.

Sales rose 18% to $30.4 million, from $25.7 million a year ago.

Emulex’s stock closed Tuesday at $6.25 per share, up 62.5 cents, on the over-the-counter market.

On Monday, Emulex Chairman Fred B. Cox announced that he had replaced Stephen W. Frankel as president in an effort to streamline management. Frankel has been given no new assignment at the firm, the company said Tuesday.

Emulex also made changes in several other key executive posts and announced that it was refocusing its business to concentrate on its principal products--data storage and communications devices for Digital Equipment Corp. computers.

Cox said in a statement Tuesday that the firm’s revenue growth “is being driven primarily by our increased focus on traditional Emulex strengths” in the Digital Equipment market.

He attributed the improved earnings primarily to cost-control programs.

Emulex, which experienced flat sales and declining profits for three years ending last June, has been on the rebound during the first six months of this year.

For the six-month period, Emulex achieved earnings of $3.9 million, more than double earnings of $1.9 million for the comparable period a year earlier. Six-month sales have risen nearly 17% to $59.2 million.