Brink's Reports 33% Drop in Fourth-Quarter Earnings

Richmond, Va. -- Brink's (CFL Quote) said Wednesday that its earnings dropped 33% in the fourth quarter compared with the prior year, when the security services company booked a hefty profit from discontinued operations.

Excluding discontinued operations, the company's fourth-quarter profit beat Wall Street's forecast by a wide margin, although its revenue missed expectations.

Brink's shares surged $3.67, or 13.5%, to $30.84 in morning trading. The stock has traded between $18.19 and $41.14 during the past 52 weeks.

Earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31 fell to $36.5 million, or 78 cents per share, from $54.4 million, or $1.15 per share, in the year-ago period.

The company's losses from discontinued operations totaled 4 cents per share during the 2008 quarter, compared with income of 40 cents per share from discontinued operations in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Excluding discontinued operations, profit in the latest quarter totaled 83 cents per share, compared with 76 cents per share in the prior-year period.

Quarterly revenue rose less than 1% to $759.5 million from $756.8 million.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who generally exclude discontinued operations from their estimates, forecast fourth-quarter earnings of 57 cents per share on revenue of $808.2 million.

For the full year, earnings rose to $183.3 million, or $3.93 per share, from $137.3 million, or $2.92 per share, a year before.

Earnings from continuing operations totaled $2.82 per share, compared with $1.67 per share in 2007.

Full-year revenue jumped 16% to $3.16 billion from $2.74 billion.