Rockwell’s Profit Drops 19% in 3rd Quarter : Outlook: Despite the decline, some of the company’s businesses posted stronger sales. The technology firm is also a finalist for a multibillion-dollar strategic defense initiative contract.

Rockwell International Corp., the diversified technology company, said Monday that its quarterly profit fell 19% as it continued to trudge through the recession.

Rockwell reported net income of $122.6 million, or 55 cents a share, for its third fiscal quarter, which ended June 30. That compared to earnings of $151.4 million, or 65 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier.

Sales fell 9% to $2.7 billion, compared to $3 billion a year earlier. The company’s weakest segments were sales of newspaper printing presses, which were down 30%; and aerospace sales, off 12%.

Despite the lower earnings, some positive indicators raise hopes for meeting the company’s goal of double-digit growth next year in earnings per share, Chairman Donald Beall said.

He cited the company’s automotive parts, factory automation and Digital Communications electronic chip manufacturing businesses as areas that posted stronger sales during the latest quarter and could help lead a recovery.

Earnings, Beall said, are also expected to improve in the future with new products, increases in government and commercial business, and cost-cutting measures.

George Podrasky, an analyst with Duff & Phelps Inc., an investment bank in Chicago, said the earnings were in line with expectations. He said he was encouraged that some businesses are rebounding, and he noted that Rockwell is one of the finalists for the multibillion-dollar Follow-on Early Warning System, a strategic defense initiative contract that is to be awarded soon.

Rockwell is also bidding to be a main contractor for the Navy’s planned AX attack aircraft and a training aircraft program for the Air Force and Navy. Any such contracts could help Rockwell’s outlook, but the company’s recovery also depends on the economy, Podrasky said.

“Factory automation and automotive parts will have to lead the charge,” he said, if the company is to make a recovery next year.

Rockwell, based in Seal Beach, employs 80,000 people. For the first nine months of fiscal 1992, the company reported a loss of $1.2 billion, or $5.24 a share, after adopting an accounting rule that requires the company to record its post-retirement benefit costs up front. The loss contrasted with a profit of $344.9 million, or $1.54 a share, a year earlier. Nine-month revenue was $8 billion, down 10% from $8.9 billion.

In the fourth quarter, Beall said, the company expects further improvement in earnings per share as the economy recovers. But he said earnings for the 1992 fiscal year will be 15% below the previous year’s, even before the accounting change.

Rockwell International

Rockwell International’s third-quarter sales fell 9% to $2.7 billion, and earnings were down $28.8 million to $122.6 million from a year earlier. For the year to date, the Seal Beach-based company is in the red by nearly $1.2 billion.

Figures are in millions except data per share.

3rd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 9 Months 9 Months 1992 1991 1992 1991 Revenue $2,703 $2,978 $8,021 $8,906 Net income (loss) 122.6 151.4 (1,174.1) 448.1 Per share (loss) 0.55 065 (5.24) 1.91

Source: Rockwell International Corp.