Lucent Posts Another Profit

Updated from 7:24 a.m. EDT

Telecom investors are seeing a bit of progress at Lucent (LU Quote).

On Tuesday, the New Jersey maker of phone-network equipment posted second-quarter earnings that were in line with Wall Street estimates, marking its third straight profit after a long string of losses. The company also gingerly forecast a full-year profit.

For its second quarter ended March 31, Lucent reported net income of $68 million, or 2 cents a diluted share. These results compare with net income of $338 million, or 7 cents a share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2004, and a loss of $351 million, or 14 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. ...