Columbia / HCA Reports 16% Boost in 1st-Quarter Profit
Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. said Tuesday that first-quarter profit rose 16% on strong gains in inpatient admissions and the addition of new hospitals during the quarter.
Louisville, Ky.-based Columbia, the nation’s largest hospital operator, said it had net income of $416 million, or 92 cents a share, compared with $358 million, or 80 cents, in the year-earlier period. Per-share earnings matched the average estimate of Wall Street analysts.
Meanwhile, two health-maintenance organizations reported strong first-quarter earnings gains.
Minneapolis-based United HealthCare Corp. earned $118.9 million, or 62 cents per share, up 33% from $89.4 million, or 51 cents per share in the first quarter of 1995.
Norwalk, Conn.-based Oxford Health Plans Inc. said it earned $18.5 million, or 25 cents per share, a 79% increase over $10.4 million, or 14 cents per share earned in 1995.
Oxford’s performance beat analyst expectations of about 23 cents per share while United’s fell short of predictions of 64 cents.
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Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. media group said net profit in its third quarter dropped 69% to $61.6 million after a one-time charge related to February’s sale of its educational book publishing business.
Sydney, Australia-based News Corp. said the one-time charge of $163.2 million was because of losses on the sale of HarperCollins Educational Publishing Inc. to Pearson.
Before the one-time charge, News Corp. said operating profit in the third quarter fell 3% to $224.8 million. Earnings per share in the quarter were 7.2 cents a share, down from 8 cents a year earlier. That’s less than analysts’ average forecast for an increase of about 4.1%.
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Hollywood Park Inc. said its first-quarter loss widened because of increased expenses from operating a card club casino and poor performance at its Woodlands racetrack.
The Inglewood-based casino and racetrack operator said it had a loss from operations of $2.5 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.08 million, or 6 cents, a year earlier.
In the most recent quarter, a charge of $11.3 million, or 60 cents a share, to write off the company’s investment in its Woodlands racetrack resulted in a loss of $13.9 million, or 74 cents a share. The results matched analysts’ expectations of a loss of 14 cents a share.
At a Glance:
Samuel Goldwyn reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss Tuesday ahead of its distress sale to billionaire John Kluge’s Metromedia concern. Goldwyn’s net loss fell to $9.99 million, or $1.18 per share, from a net loss of $12.79 million, or $1.51 per share for the period last year.
Marvel Entertainment said the cost of changes in its publishing and trading card business led it to post a first-quarter loss of $4.4 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with net income of $8.2 million, or 8 cents, a year earlier.
Authentic Fitness reported a smaller-than-expected profit for the fiscal third quarter of $7.79 million, or 34 cents a share, from year-earlier net income of $5.98 million, or 28 cents.
