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Former Olympic Rower Turned to Minimalism to Pay Down $82,000 in DebtAmong Thursday's quarterly reports were those of Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB), and E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC), all of which had disappointing news for investors.
One of the nation's largest homebuilders, Lennar, reported a $1.25 billion loss in the fourth quarter -- its largest ever -- as the housing slump drove prices lower and the builder took hefty charges. Lennar also reported a $1.9 billion loss for all of 2007. The Miami-based company said it was aggressively trying generate cash and lower inventory.
Quarterly losses rose to $7.92 per share, from $195.6 million, or $1.24 per share, a year ago. Revenue fell 49% percent to $2.18 billion from $4.27 billion in the same period of 2006, as both home deliveries and new orders fell 50%. The results topped the consensus forcast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, who had expected a loss of $1.65 per share on revenue of $2.06 billion (these estimates typically exclude one-time charges such as land write-downs).
For the year ending November 30, Lennar's losses come to $12.31 per share, compared with profits of $593.9 million, or $3.69 per share, in 2006. Shares closed up 8.5%, to $16.21.
Kimberly-Clark reported that fourth-quarter profits slipped 5.5% as higher materials costs offset a 10.5% increase in revenue. The company earned $456 million, or $1.07 per share, in the fourth quarter, down from $482.6 million, or $1.05 per share a year earlier. Excluding restructuring charges, the company would have earned $1.11 per share, which met the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Revenue rose to $4.76 billion, beating analysts' prediction of $4.65 billion, partly due to favorable currency exchanges.
For all of 2007, Kimberly-Clark earned $1.82 billion, or $4.09 per share, on sales of $18.27. That compared to 2006 earnings of $1.50 billion, or $3.25 per share, on $16.75 billion in sales. For all of 2008, Kimberly-Clark expects to earn $4.45 to $4.60 per share. Analysts had expected $4.60 per share. Kimberly-Clark said it will continue to boost per-share profit by buying back its own stock. Shares were down only a penny at the close, $64.43.
E*Trade posted a hefty loss for the fourth quarter because the struggling discount brokerage had dumped a book of risky investments at a steep discount. E*Trade lost $1.71 billion, or $3.98 per share, compared to a profit of $176.7 million, or 40 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2006. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected a smaller loss of $2.90 per share. E-Trade's revenue for the quarter was negative $2.01 billion, compared to revenue of $628.8 million in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts expected revenue of negative $1.1 billion.
E-Trade lost $1.4 billion, or $3.40 cents per share, for the year in 2007, compared with profit of $628.9 million, or $1.49 per share, in 2006. Shares ended Thursday at $3.48, up just two cents from the open.
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