4th-Quarter Profits Rise 74% for Xircom Inc.

Xircom Inc., a Calabasas-based manufacturer of components for personal computers, said profit for its fiscal fourth quarter increased 74%, to $1.76 million from $1.02 million a year earlier, on a 92% jump in revenue.

For the three months that ended Sept. 30, Xircom’s sales increased to $17.1 million from $8.9 million. Xircom attributed the growth in sales and earnings to a strong demand for the company’s second-generation of local area network adapters, which enable personal computers to link up with other computers, printers and database networks.

With the latest results, Xircom’s profit for its full fiscal year increased 145%, to $6.06 million from $2.47 million the prior year. Its annual sales were $59.1 million, up 124% from $26.3 million in fiscal 1991.

Xircom’s earnings were in line with analysts’ expectations. Earlier in the year some analysts cut their forecasts for Xircom’s fiscal 1992 profit to $6.2 million from $6.5 million, because the four-year-old company encountered problems launching a new product.