Los Angeles County - News from Feb. 5, 1996

Big Banana Sales: Dole Food Co.’s earnings are due out today, and the Westlake Village food concern is expected to report a modestly profitable fourth quarter--typically its slowest period. The company has a tough act to follow in 1994’s final quarter, when Dole benefited from banana shortages at some of its competitors. Analyst Michael Branca at NatWest Securities Corp. projects an increase of about 27% in Dole’s full-year operating profit, to $87 million. But that’s before one-time charges from a write-down of the real estate operations that Dole spun off into a separate company last month.