Electro Rent Reports 39% Profit Gain in Quarter

Electro Rent Corp., a Van Nuys company that rents and leases personal computers and other electronic equipment, reported a 39% increase in profit for its fiscal third quarter compared with a year earlier.

In the three months that ended Feb. 28, Electro Rent earned $2.88 million, up from $2.07 million a year earlier. The profit came on an 11% increase in quarterly revenue, from $25.1 million to $27.8 million. The company said the better results reflected an increase in rental revenue and more efficient management of its equipment.

For its fiscal nine months that ended Feb. 28, the company posted a profit of $8.42 million, down 8% from $9.11 million a year earlier. But the year-earlier figure included the addition of $2.59 million because of a change in the accounting method. For the latest nine months, revenue totaled $82.8 million, up 9% from $75.7 million a year earlier.