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Associated Press | Property and casualty insurer Allstate Corp. said Wednesday it was profitable in the first-quarter, reversing a year-ago loss. Northbrook-based Allstate said its net income totaled $120 million, even as costs rose for insuring against damage caused by catastrophes, including severe winter weather in the eastern United States.
Get the full story: Insurer Allstate returns to profitability.
Dow Jones Newswires | CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.’s first-quarter loss narrowed on
double-digit revenue growth as its Americas unit saw better results.
The commercial-brokerage giant’s earnings met Wall Street’s expectations
and the revenue exceeded them.
Equity Residential’s first-quarter profit declined 32% on higher expenses, as the real estate investment trust reported lower rental rates but an increase in occupancy.
Looking ahead, Equity Residential sees second-quarter funds from operations — a key profitability measure for REITs — of 53 cents to 57 cents a share. Analysts expected 52 cents, according to Thomson Reuters.
From Reuters | Chicago data firm Morningstar
Inc., which tracks mutual funds and
other
industries, said on Wednesday its first-quarter profit fell 19
percent on higher costs.
Get the full story: reuters.com.
By Becky Yerak |
Lake Forest-based Wintrust Financial, which operates 15 community
banks, said the two failed lenders it bought Friday on Chicago’s North
Side and in Naperville will plug geographic holes.
“Those are two areas we’re not in at this point in time,” Chief
Executive Ed Wehmer said Wednesday in an earnings conference call.
Tribune staff report | The stock of Cole Taylor Bank’s parent
company was down 17 percent, to $13.49 a share, in late-day trading Wednesday after the
Rosemont-based lender reported worse-than-expected financial results.
For the quarter ended March 31, Taylor Capital Group Inc. reported a net
loss of $13.6 million, or $1.30 a diluted share, compared to a net loss
of $5.7 million, or 54 cents a share, a year-earlier.
From Reuters | Lake Forest-based Wintrust Financial topped investor expectations, reporting that its net income for the first quarter was 16.0 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with $6.4 million, or 6 cents a share, a year ago.
Get the full story: reuters.com.
Associated Press via Bloomberg | Deerfield-based Fortune Brands, the maker of Jim Beam bourbon, bathroom faucets and other
consumer products, raised the low end of its full-year adjusted
earnings guidance on Tuesday, citing its better-than-expected
first-quarter performance.
Get the full story: businessweek.com.
By Bruce Japsen | Hospira Inc. said today profits dropped 14 percent in the first quarter
of this year thanks largely to an unusual gain the company had from a
tax settlement in the same period a year ago.
The Lake Forest-based maker of medication delivery devices and generic
injectable drugs reported profits of $141.7 million, or 84 cents,
compared to $165.5 million, or $1.03 in the quarter a year before. Sales
rose 17 percent to $1 billion on improved sales of injectables, such as
the intravenous sedation treatment Precedex.
Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal | OptionsXpress Holdings Inc.’s first-quarter profit fell by 12%
from a year ago as lower volatility and a drop in trading volume
weighed on results at the options brokerage.
However, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, the Chicago
company’s chief executive, David Fisher, said, “We kind of feel like we
reached a bottom and are starting to see a rebound,” referring to
improvements in several metrics as well as clients’ trading behavior.
Get the full story: wsj.com.
By Julie Johnsson | Two
years ago, Continental Airlines’ board ended merger talks with United
Airlines after the Chicago-based carrier reported unexpectedly poor
quarterly results. But United’s financial strength is no longer an issue as the carriers
redouble their efforts to complete a deal to form the world’s largest
airline.
A source close to the talks told the Tribune that the carriers remain
on track to wrap up a deal during the next few days and that price is the
only major issue yet to be resolved.
Passengers check in at the United Airlines ticket counter, at Logan International Airport in Boston in July. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
By Julie Johnsson | Spurred by strong revenue growth, United Airlines parent UAL Corp. performed better than analysts
had expected as it narrowed its first quarter loss to $92 million, or
$0.55 cents per share, in earnings reported Tuesday. That’s an
improvement from the $382 million net loss, or $2.64 per share, that
United reported a year ago.
Customers in the showroom at the Formula Ford dealership in Montpelier, Vt.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
Associated Press | Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it earned $2.1 billion in the first
quarter, another sign the economy is improving as people spend more on
big-ticket items like cars. The automaker expects to be solidly
profitable this year, a year earlier than its previous guidance.
Ford said its net income per share was 50 cents for the quarter. That’s
an about-face from the same period last year when it lost $1.4 billion,
or 60 cents per share, at the height of the recession. It was Ford’s
fourth straight positive quarter and its highest quarterly profit in
six years.
Tribune staff report | Tellabs reported a first-quarter profit of $45.9 million, or 12 cents a share, up from $6.5 million or 2 cents a share a year earlier, beating expectations. The company also upped its outlook, predicting companies would spend more to upgrade their networks.
Excluding special items, profit rose to 11 cents a share from 6 cents a share a year earlier. First-quarter revenue rose 5 percent to $380 million from $362 million a year earlier.
By Becky Yerak | PrivateBancorp Inc. stock was down 13.5 percent to $14.77 a share in
midday trading, after swinging to a first-quarter loss that was bigger
than analysts’ estimates as set-asides for potential loan losses
quadrupled.
In a conference call Monday morning, the Chicago-based lender, which grew rapidly after hiring dozens of former LaSalle Bank executives, also
declined to say whether it would return to profitability in 2010.
