Motorola Earnings Triple

Motorola Inc. on Tuesday said first-quarter profit tripled on its growing share of the handset market, sending its stock skyrocketing 23% as it blew past Wall Street’s expectations.

The world’s second-largest cellphone maker also forecast second-quarter results that dwarfed analysts’ estimates, and its results gave a broad boost to shares of wireless technology and equipment companies.

Motorola, based in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Ill., reported a first-quarter net profit of $609 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with $169 million, or 7 cents, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, it earned about 18 cents a share, topping analysts’ expectations of 7 cents a share, according to Reuters Research.

Sales in the quarter rose to $8.56 billion, far above the $6.76 billion that analysts were expecting. Motorola’s sales were 42% above last year and almost 7% above the preceding quarter.

“It looks like Motorola to some degree benefited at Nokia’s expense during the quarter,” said Shawn Campbell of Campbell Asset Management in Chicago, which owns Motorola shares.

Nokia, the world’s biggest mobile phone maker, disappointed investors Friday when it admitted that cheaper, funkier phones from rivals were eating into its market lead. It also said second-quarter earnings would fall and sales also could drop.

Motorola shares surged to $20 in after-hours trading from its Tuesday closing price of $16.22 on the New York Stock Exchange. The last time Motorola topped $20 a share was in February 2001.