Rockwell Profit Rises 2.7%

Rockwell International Corp. said Tuesday that its fiscal third-quarter profit rose 2.7%, as two of its divisions--avionics and factory-automation systems--had higher revenue and profit.

While those divisions, which make automated systems that control factory production systems and airplane avionics components, showed improvement, Rockwell’s semiconductor division continued to backslide. The company blamed that on costs associated with the introduction of its 56-kilobyte-per-second computer modem chips, and increased spending on research and development on chips for wireless communications and other uses.

Donald Beall, Rockwell’s chairman and chief executive, warned that the semiconductor division’s fiscal fourth-quarter results also will be lower than the comparable 1996 quarter.

“Overall, Rockwell is doing very well,” said analyst Jeff Sprague of Cowen & Co. As for the semiconductor division, “it’s not clear yet whether this thing has turned around or not.”

The Seal Beach-based company’s profit before a charge, and excluding its auto parts division, rose to $150 million, or 71 cents a share, from $146 million, or 67 cents, in the year-ago quarter.

Rockwell was expected to report profit of 72 cents a share.

Rockwell shares rose $2.31 to close at $64.81 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Revenue for the quarter ended June 30 rose 2% to $1.93 billion, from $1.89 billion.