CHICAGO (AP) - Motorola Inc., the world's second-largest maker of cellphones, said Thursday its fourth-quarter income rose 86 per cent as it rode the continuing momentum of its ultra-slim Razr phones to record sales.
The earnings topped Wall Street estimates but revenue and handset shipment totals came in just shy of expectations, sending shares of the Schaumburg, Ill.-based company tumbling in after-hours activity following a four per cent jump during the regular trading session.
Net earnings for the October-through-December quarter were $1.2 billion, or 47 cents per share, up from $647 million US, or 28 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding certain items, including a gain from a legal settlement with Turkish network operator Telsim and tax adjustments, earnings were 35 cents per share. That was a penny more than the mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
Revenue was $10.43 billion, up 18 per cent from $8.84 billion although slightly below analysts' estimates of $10.51 billion.
Motorola said it shipped 44.7 million handsets during the quarter, an increase of 40 per cent compared with a year earlier and about one per cent below analysts' estimate. It pegged its world market share at 19 per cent, which would keep it a solid but distant second behind Finland's Nokia.
It launched 26 new handsets in the quarter, several of them variations on the Razr that has reinvigorated the once-slumping company since 2004.
The company said it expects first-quarter sales of between $9.3 billion and $9.5 billion and earnings of 27 cents to 29 cents, excluding stock-option expenses of about two cents per share. Both those forecasts are within the range expected by analysts, who had estimated sales of $9.35 billion and per-share earnings of 28 cents.
Motorola shares were trading down $1.62, or 6.7 per cent, in late activity after closing up 74 cents at $24.35 on the New York Stock Exchange before the report was released, reflecting high expectations among investors.
Morningstar Inc. analyst John Slack said Wall Street may have gotten "a little greedy" by expecting a blowout quarter to cap Motorola's stellar year.
"These are great numbers," he said. But compared with lofty expectations, "they delivered but they didn't exceed."
The industry is watching closely to see if Motorola can keep the momentum going with new Razr-related products such as the Slvr and the Pebl.
"Despite not being a blockbuster quarter, they have the hottest product portfolio in the market right now as far as handsets," Slack said.
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