Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) said Thursday that its second-quarter profit rose to $112 million, or 15 cents a share, from $91 million, or 12 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding items, earnings in the latest quarter would have been 29 cents a share. Total operating revenue rose to $3.17 billion from $2.62 billion. On average, analysts were looking for a profit of 26 cents a share on revenue of $3.15 billion. "Given the current economic outlook and trends, we continue to approach route expansion through optimizing our flight schedule rather than fleet growth," said Gary Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement. "We remain committed to reaching our financial targets before we return to any significant level of fleet growth." In other news, Goodyear Tire & Rubber (NYSE:GT) said Thursday it swung to a second-quarter profit of $28 million, or 11 cents a share, from a loss of $221 million, or 92 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Quarterly sales rose 15% to $4.5 billion, with a 10% increase in the number of tires sold. Analysts expected the Akron, Oh., tire maker to earn 5 cents on sales of $4.36 billion, on average. Tire sales across all four of the company’s operating regions improved as global demand recovered. North American brought in the biggest revenue jump with sales up 21% from the year-earlier quarter. -MarketWatch
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf said customers, not just the bank, will bear the financial burden for U.S. regulations that cover services ranging from home loans to credit cards. “I can’t guarantee that we won’t pass on some of those costs,” Stumpf, 56, said in an interview at his San Francisco office. “We’ll try to tighten our belt and absorb some of the costs of compliance, but some costs may change and customers might pay for their financial services in new ways.” Stumpf’s comments add to evidence that new rules mean new expenses for consumers as banks make up for lost revenue and increased costs. JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said July 15 the legislation may translate into higher fees and credit- card rates, and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Brian T. Moynihan told shareholders a day later he’s looking for ways to soften the impact on annual revenue, which the lender said could be $2.3 billion. –Bloomberg
An increase in consumer spending helped boost credit card processor Visa (NYSE:V) third quarter earnings. After Wednesday’s market close, Visa reported net income of $716 million or 97 cents a share, with revenues of $2 billion. Wall Street analysts expected the San Francisco company to earn 93 cents per share or $729 million on revenue of slightly less than $2 billion. In the same quarter last year, the company earned 67 cents per share, on revenue of $1.65 billion. Visa’s total credit transactions for the quarter totaled 11.7 billion, a 14% increase over the prior year. For the year, Visa estimates a net revenue growth of 11% to 15%. Debit cards have helped Visa weather the economic downturn. Visa says 70% of all its payment transactions in the U.S. are now debit or prepaid, reflecting a desire by consumers to hold debt levels down. –Daily Finance
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week, but that followed a big rise the previous period, signaling little improvement in the job market. Initial claims for jobless benefits declined by 11,000 to 457,000 in the week ended July 24, the Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday. The decline beat expectations of economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires, who had predicted claims would fall by only 4,000. However, the previous week’s level of claims was revised upward, from 464,000 to 468,000. –The Wall Street Journal
Loading ...
