STAR-BULLETIN / 2001
Profits at Longs Drug Stores Corp. fell 52 percent in the second quarter, though the stock price rose $4.15 yesterday.
Longs Drug stock
up despite profit dropShares jump 23 percent
as the company beats
Wall Street expectations
NEW YORK >> Longs Drug Stores Corp. stock jumped yesterday after the California company reported profits ahead of analysts' expectations for its latest quarter, although they were down 52 percent from last year.
Shares of Longs Drug closed yesterday at $22.20, up $4.15, or 23 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Yesterday, the Walnut Creek-based company reported earnings of $5.2 million, or 14 cents a share, on revenue of $1.1 billion in the fiscal second quarter ended July 31.
Excluding items, Longs earned 25 cents a share. Analysts were expecting earnings of 21 cents a share.
In the same quarter last year, Longs earned $10.9 million, or 29 cents a share, on revenue of $1.1 billion.
More than 80 percent of the company's stores are based in economically sluggish California, where retailers have been fighting for limited market share by cutting prices.
Sales at stores open more than one year fell 1.9 percent in the recent quarter from last year.
Management has cut prices on many of its health and beauty products in an effort to spawn long-term growth, said SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst David Magee.
