EVERETT – A reversal of fortunes for Unova Inc.’s industrial division and higher sales at Intermec Technologies boosted the locally based corporation’s third-quarter performance and sent its stock soaring by 31 percent Tuesday.
Unova reported third-quarter net earnings of $5.9 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.3 million during the same period of 2003.
“We are encouraged by our achievements in growth, profitability and cash flows,” Larry Brady, Unova’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in his summary of the quarterly earnings.
Discounting a loss from the company’s discontinued operations, earnings totaled $6.5 million, or 11 cents a share.
That easily beat analysts’ forecasts that earnings would total only 3 cents a share, sending Unova’s stock price up nearly $5 a share early Tuesday.
The stock closed at $20, up $4.71, or 31 percent, from Monday’s close. That was among the biggest gains of the day on the New York Stock Exchange.
In Unova’s Intermec division, the Everett business that makes mobile computing, wireless and inventory tracking products, revenue from sales and service was up 16 percent. Overall revenue totaled $194.8 million.
Unova’s industrial business, which makes heavy manufacturing machinery, saw overall revenue climb by 23 percent over the same period last year to nearly $122 million.
Brady said part of the turnaround in the once-troubled industrial division has come from sales of composite-making equipment to aerospace companies, including the Boeing Co. and Airbus.
“For the corporation as a whole, Unova’s sales of $317 million were up 14 percent over the third quarter of 2003,” Brady told investors.
He added that the company also has increased its research and development spending at Intermec, which it hopes will lead to even stronger profits in 2005.
Since moving its headquarters to Everett in early 2003, Unova has been the second-largest publicly held company based in Snohomish County.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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