Earnings Watch

A sampling of companies reporting quarterly earnings Monday, ranked by year-over-year growth, and companies due to report today, ranked by analysts’ forecast change in earnings per share (EPS) from the year-ago quarter, compiled by First Call:

Reporting Monday

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Pct. above/ 1997 Ticker Consensus Actual below 3rd-qtr. Company symbol EPS EPS estimate EPS AT&T; T $0.95 $1.00 +5% $0.60 Provident PVT 0.56 0.55 --2 0.47 American Express AXP 1.24 1.25 +1 1.10 Hartford Financial HIG 0.86 0.87 +1 0.77 Ball BLL 0.73 0.75 +3 0.68 Safeco SAFC 0.53 0.68 +28 0.63 Andrew ANDW 0.30 0.31 +3 0.34 Ashland ASH 1.02 0.91 --11 1.00 Sonat SNT 0.34 0.34 0 0.47 Union Carbide UK 0.53 0.55 +4 1.18 Louisiana Pacific LPX 0.45 0.44 --2 --0.16

Year- over-year Company % growth AT&T; +67% Provident +17 American Express +14 Hartford Financial +13 Ball +10 Safeco +8 Andrew --9 Ashland --9 Sonat --28 Union Carbide --53 Louisiana Pacific NM*

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Reporting Today

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Ticker Consensus Year-ago Predicted Company symbol EPS estimate quarter pct. chg. Foster Wheeler FWC $0.49 $0.19 +158% General Instrument GIC 0.21 0.15 +40 Northern Telecom NT 0.37 0.30 +23 HealthSouth HRC 0.28 0.24 +17 Columbia/HCA Healthcare COL 0.24 0.21 +14 Interpublic Group IPG 0.32 0.28 +14 American Electric Power AEP 1.04 0.93 +12 Boston Scientific BSX 0.46 0.44 +5 Consolidated Edison ED 1.46 1.49 --2 Kerr-McGee KMG 0.15 0.83 --82 Cyprus Amax Minerals CYM --0.12 0.34 NM* Pennzoil PZL --0.30 0.80 NM* Battle Mountain Gold BMG --0.03 0.00 NM* Eastern Enterprises EFU --0.20 --0.24 NM* Stone Container STO --0.76 --0.99 NM*

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* NM = not meaningful. A loss in any period makes percentage change not calculable.

Note: Year-over-year growth and percentage changes are based on earnings-per-share figures and may differ from percentage changes based on total profit.

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