Lucent Showing Unenviable Knack for Repeatedly Disappointing Wall St.

Lucent Technologies is turning out to be an industry leader in a way its executives probably never dreamed of--or wanted.

In uncorking its latest earnings shocker Tuesday, the world’s leading telecommunications equipment maker solidified its position as one of the companies that disappoints Wall Street most often.

Lucent has issued profit warnings in four of the last five quarters, according to First Call Corp. Twice, Lucent issued an initial warning only to follow with a second advisory a few weeks later that dropped estimated profits even lower. Another time, Lucent issued a warning only to later fall shy of its own watered-down projection in its actual profit release.

The string of unpleasant surprises has drawn a predictable reaction from Wall Street: Lucent’s stock has plummeted 75% so far this year, including a 16% dip in the wake of Tuesday’s bombshell.

Among large companies, Lucent’s record over the last two years is matched only by that of troubled Xerox Corp., said Chuck Hill, First Call research director. The world’s largest copier maker has fallen shy of estimates in five of the last six quarters.

Lucent’s record lately is even worse than that of Hewlett-Packard Co., Hill said. Hewlett-Packard missed earnings estimates in much of 1997 and 1998. It fell shy again last quarter. But it had topped expectations in the previous four quarters.

At Lucent, on the other hand, the bad news keeps coming. “This is the worst string [of earnings misses] that I can recall” among large companies, said Larry Rice, chief investment officer at Josephthal & Co.

The trouble at Lucent is all the more startling because the company had been a Wall Street darling until its first profit warning in January. Before then, it had consistently beaten profit estimates from the time it was spun off from AT&T; in 1996, Hill said.