SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Palm Inc. shares advanced in Tuesday's
extended session after the company said its fiscal second-quarter net profit
surged, while Electronic Arts shares declined after the company warned it
would likely miss its earnings and revenue targets.
The Nasdaq-100 After Hours Indicator, which tracks the evening session of
the index's leading shares, was down 0.72 point to 1664.35.
Palm shares rose almost 7% to $32.98 and topped the most actives list,
according to iNet Data Services. Excluding a tax benefit and other items, Palm
would have earned $24.4 million, or 47 cents a share on revenue of $444.6
million.
Wall Street analysts, on average, expected the maker of handheld devices
to post a profit before items of 43 cents a share on revenue of $440.7
million, according to a Thomson First Call survey.
Shares of Electronic Arts dropped almost 4% to $51.05 after the videogame
developer said it expects earnings and revenue for its third and fourth
quarters to be "well below" its financial forecasts and current analyst
consensus estimates.
Those shares were the late session's second most-actively traded.
Shares of Activision Inc. and THQ Inc., which develop interactive
entertainment software, declined 1% to $12.90 and 3% to $21.84, respectively.
General Motors Corp. stock lost almost 3% to $19.27 after Kirk Kerkorian's
Tracinda Corp. sold 12 million shares of the beleaguered automaker, cutting
his stake in the company to 7.8% from 9.9%, according to a filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
GM's stock fell almost 6% to reach an 18-year low in regular trading.
Jabil Circuits shares fell 3% to $33.43. The company reported core
earnings of $92.8 million, or 44 cents share, to beat analysts who forecast
earnings of 42 cents a share, on $2.3 billion in revenue.
The circuit board maker forecast an earnings range for the upcoming
quarter of 34 cents to 38 cents a share, while analysts are looking for the
company to earn 37 cents per share.
Nike Inc. shares lost more than 3% to $85.30. The company's second-
quarter profit rose 15% to $301.1 million, or $1.14 a share, surpassing
analysts' average estimate by 11 cents a share. Revenue advanced 10% to $3.47
billion.
However, orders for future delivery slowed to 2.5% over the year-ago
period, a cooling off from the 9.9% growth reported at the end of the first
quarter. Nike hasn't reported futures orders growth of less than 9% since
June of 2003.
Jasmina Kelemen is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco.
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SOURCE Thomson Financial Corporate Group
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