At a Glance
Other California company earnings, excluding one-time gains and charges unless noted:
* Amgen Inc., the world’s largest biotechnology company, said first-quarter earnings rose 32% as sales of its blockbuster anemia drug, Epogen, soared.
Net income rose to $247 million, or 46 cents a share, from $187 million, or 35 cents, a year earlier. Results exceeded the 44-cent average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. Revenue rose 23%, to $745.4 million from $605.4 million, led by a 30% increase in sales of Epogen to $395 million.
* Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., the leading maker of cable modem chips, said profit rose more than 150%, beating analysts’ forecasts, on strong demand for its data-networking and digital TV set-top-box chips.
Net income rose to $19.3 million, or 19 cents a share, from $7.7 million, or 9 cents, a year earlier. Broadcom was expected to earn 14 cents, the average estimate of analysts. Sales nearly tripled to $96.3 million from $35.3 million.
* E-Trade Group Inc. posted a smaller-than-expected operating loss of $14.3 million, or 12 cents a share, in its fiscal second quarter ended March 31 after spending $60 million on advertising its services. The loss per share was narrower than analysts’ estimates of 17 cents. The results contrast with a profit of $4.5 million, or 5 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue more than doubled to $126.7 million from $56.1 million a year ago, driven by the record 70,000 trades a day the Palo Alto-based brokerage processed.
* Commerce-based 99 Cents Only Stores reported net income of $6.3 million, or 25 cents per share, for the quarter ended March 31, on revenue of $93.7 million, compared with net income of $4.5 million, or 19 cents, a year ago.
* Occidental Petroleum Corp., the 11th-largest U.S. oil company, had a first-quarter loss of $68 million, or 20 cents a share, contrasted with a year-earlier profit from continuing operations of $89 million, or 25 cents. That was in line with the average estimate of analysts. Per-share amounts reflect payment of preferred dividends.
Sales fell 24%, to $1.3 billion from $1.7 billion. The price of oil averaged $13.17 a barrel during the quarter, down 17% from a year earlier.
* Pleasanton-based PeopleSoft Inc. reported first-quarter results that were in line with diminished expectations as the No. 2 maker of business management software was hurt by the year 2000 computer glitch. The company said profit before special charges fell to $7.6 million, or 3 cents per diluted share, from $33.8 million, or 13 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose 10%, to $305.4 million from $277.7 million.
* Wireless communications equipment company Qualcomm Inc. reported a $43-million loss, or 59 cents a share, for its second fiscal quarter ended March 28, contrasted with a profit of $26 million, or 36 cents, a year earlier, although underlying earnings were sharply higher. The loss came after $166 million in charges mostly related to the San Diego-based company’s sale of a wireless infrastructure business to Sweden’s Ericsson, announced last month.
* Los Angeles-based Univision Communications Inc. reported first-quarter net income of $6.5 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with $300,000, or 0 cents, a year ago.
