Richmond-based firms: Media General Inc.
Richmond-based Media General Inc. reported a net loss for the fourth quarter as the company recorded severance and impairment charges and political advertising revenue declined compared with the previous year.
The parent company of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported a loss of $3.3 million, or 15 cents per share, compared with a profit of $9 million, or 39 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Excluding severance and impairment charges, profit in the fourth quarter was $4.5 million compared with a profit of $9.3 million in the same period of 2010.
The company said its revenue in the fourth quarter dropped 11.7 percent from the prior year to $168 million mostly because of an expected and significant decrease in political advertising in an off-election year.
Political revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010 were $24 million, compared with only $3.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2011. Lower print revenue and a drop in advertising services revenue also contributed to the overall revenue decline.
For the full year, Media General had a net loss of $74.3 million, or a loss of $3.31 a share, compared with a loss of $22.6 million, or a loss of $1.01 a share, in 2010. Revenue fell to $616.2 million from $678.1 million in 2010.
The company's operating income for the fourth quarter was $27.7 million, excluding non-cash intangible asset impairment of $6 million and severance expense of $3.5 million.
Media General's businesses include 18 television stations, 23 newspapers, Web sites associated with those media properties, and three digital media advertising services companies.
The company's shares declined 50 cents, or 9.12 percent, to $4.98 on the New York Stock Exchange.
John Reid Blackwell
Union First Market
Union First Market Bankshares Corp. said its fourth quarter profit rose 89 percent as its provision for loan losses decreased.
The company reported profit of $8.36 million, or 28 cents per share, for the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with profit of $4.42 million or 15 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Nonperforming assets at the end of the fourth quarter totaled $77.1 million, a decrease of $9.4 million from the third quarter and a decrease of $20.7 million compared to the same period a year ago. The company's provision for loan losses was $2.4 million, down $7.1 million from the same quarter a year ago.
For the full year of 2011, the company reported profit of $30.4 million or $1.07 per share, compared with profit of $22.9 million or 83 cents per share for 2010.
The company's shares rose 5 cents, or less than 1 percent, to $14.23 on Nasdaq.
Richmond-based Union First Market Bankshares is the holding company for Union First Market Bank, which has 99 branches in Virginia.
John Reid Blackwell
Dow Industrial firms: AT&T
AT&T Inc. is still the home of the iPhone. It activated 7.6 million of them in the latest quarter, accounting for one out of every five iPhones sold globally.
The iPhone accounted for about 80 percent of the smartphones AT&T activated in the fourth quarter of 2011.
AT&T's iPhone dependency comes at a heavy cost. The phone is more expensive than many other smartphones, and AT&T needs to subsidize each iPhone with hundreds of dollars to put it in customers' hands.
That, together with massive charges for adjustments in the value of the company's pension plans, the breakup of a deal to buy T-Mobile USA and a writedown of the value of its phone-directory business, forced AT&T to report a massive loss on Thursday of $6.68 billion, or $1.12 per share, for the fourth quarter.
It was the first quarterly loss for AT&T in three years. AT&T took a charge of $4.2 billion for the compensation it is paying T-Mobile USA. When AT&T made the $39 billion bid in March, it promised T-Mobile cash and wireless licenses if the deal fell through. The deal was squelched by federal regulators.
Excluding charges, net income was 42 cents per share in the latest quarter, a penny shy of Wall Street expectations.
The loss compares with net income of $1.09 billion, or 18 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue rose 3.6 percent to $32.5 billion, helped by the smartphone sales. Analysts were expecting revenue of $31.99 billion, on average.
For all of 2011, AT&T earned $3.9 billion, or 66 cents per share, on $126.7 billion in revenue. That compares with $19.9 billion, or $3.35 per share, on $124.3 billion in revenue in 2010.
The Associated Press
Caterpillar
Caterpillar Inc. said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit jumped 60 percent, boosted by pent-up demand for new equipment and continuing growth in developing countries. Caterpillar, based in Peoria, Ill., reported net income of $1.55 billion, or $2.32 per share, up from $968 million, or $1.47 per share, in the same quarter last year.
Sales and revenue jumped 35 percent to $17.24 billion, as sales volume increased at all three of the company's major businesses. Revenue from mining equipment company Bucyrus International Inc., which Caterpillar acquired in July, totaled $1.39 billion.
Caterpillar's results easily topped Wall Street predictions for profit of $1.76 per share and $15.95 billion in revenue.
For the full year 2011, Caterpillar earned $4.93 billion, or $7.40 per share, up from $2.7 billion, or $4.15 per share, in 2010. Sales and revenue increased to $60.14 billion from $42.59 billion.
Excluding Bucyrus, Caterpillar earned $7.79 per share and posted $57.61 billion in sales.
The Associated Press
3M
3M Co. said Thursday its profit inched 3 percent higher in the fourth-quarter as more demand for products for the home, office and automobile offset declining sales of high-tech products.
The company said it earned $954 million, or $1.35 per share, in the final three months of 2011, compared with $928 million, or $1.28 per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 6 percent to $7.09 billion. Wall Street was banking on even smaller earnings growth. Analysts expected a profit of $1.31 per share. Revenue matched analysts' forecast.
The Associated Press
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