Shares of the top maker of photographic film, Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK), have been tumbling in morning trading after putting up less than impressive earnings.The company was not able to come in above analyst estimates, despite the fact that its loss narrowed to $115 million, or 40 cents a share in the first-quarter. Compared to its first period last year, its quarterly numbers showed a nice rebound, as the company reported a much higher loss of 53 cents a share last year.The photography products maker improved its performance on digital photography products and services, but this was not enough to offset higher silver and aluminum cost and increased spending on its inkjet printer business.
Going into today's earnings report Wall Street had been looking to see the company show Q1 loss of 3 cents a share. Excluding one-time items, the company stated that it loss came in at 39 cents a share, far more than the loss that analysts predicted. So with the actual numbers, Eastman Kodak is looking for a pretty bad day in today's session.
Looking at the quarter's revenue figures, we see a year-over-year rise of only 1%, climbing to $2.093 billion from $2.08 billion. The good news is that Eastman Kodak saw its digital sales jumping 10%, with consumer digital imaging sales bringing an even higher growth of 20%. The bad news is that operating losses from its divisions were deep enough to put a shadow on its quarterly revenue numbers. Analysts, on average, forecast sales of $2.037 billion in the first-quarter, according to Thomson Financial.
Wall Street expressed disappointment over Eastman Kodak's weak earnings figures, and pushed shares of the company down 6.82% so far today.
Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
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