Q1 profits up for Merck, Halliburton, and NetFlix

Posted Apr 21st 2008 6:40PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Halliburton (HAL), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Merck and Co (MRK)

Some good news: Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK), Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL), and Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) on Monday all reported increased earnings in the first quarter.

Merck said it nearly doubled its first-quarter profit, due to a scheduled $1.4 billion payment from a partner.

The drug maker posted net income of $3.3 billion, or $1.52 per share, for the January-March period, up from $1.7 billion, or 78 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding one-time items, Merck earned 89 cents per share, beating by three cents the forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Revenues totaled $5.82 billion, up 1% from $5.77 billion in the first three months of 2007, but below analysts' expectations of $6.11 billion. The company attributed the slow sales growth to the weak U.S. dollar.

Merck shares fell Monday 13 cents, to close at $39.63. Shares are down 23% in the past year.

Halliburton said it earned $584 million, or 64 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, up 6% from a year-earlier profit of $552 million, or 54 cents per share. Revenue rose to $4.03 billion from $3.42 billion a year earlier. The company attributed the results to growth in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected earnings of 64 cents per share on revenue of $3.99 billion.

Halliburton shares rose three cents to $47. 46 Monday. They had reached an all-time high of $47.77 during trading Friday.

Netflix's first-quarter profit climbed 36% due to accelerating subscriber growth, but a tepid outlook caused Netflix shares to plunge more than 12% in after-hours trading.

Netflix said it earned $13.4 million, or 21 cents per share, during the first three months of the year, compared with net income of $9.9 million, or 14 cents per share, at the same time in 2007. Revenue rose 7% to $326.2 million.
The earnings were in line with analysts' expectations.

Netflix ended March with 8.24 million subscribers, a gain of 764,000 customers during the first three months of the year. But the company warned that it would be more difficult to attract customers in the current quarter.

Tags: earnings, earnings reports, featured, HAL, Halliburton, Merck, MRK, Netflix, NFLX