Unisys Falls 4% on Revenue Shortfall
Unisys
(UIS)
forecast on-target fourth-quarter earnings but warned of a revenue shortfall as it quits some businesses.
The Blue Bell, Pa., Internet business firm also set a fourth-quarter pretax charge of $150 million to $175 million to cut 2,000 jobs by year-end. The company employs about 36,000 workers now.
According to estimate tracker
First Call/Thomson Financial
, nine analysts expect Unisys to earn 41 cents a share for its fourth quarter, down from 46 cents a year ago. Analysts on average expect fourth-quarter revenue of $2.05 billion, compared with $1.96 billion last year. Unisys said Thursday it expects revenue to fall short of that year-ago figure, "assuming a 2% to 3% negative impact due to our decision to exit commodity products and another 6% for unfavorable currency exchange."
For 2001, Unisys expects earnings per share to be "on target" with analysts' expectations, with double-digit EPS growth for the full year. The First Call consensus estimate calls for 2001 earnings of $1.35 a share, compared with the estimated $1.06 a share in 2000.
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Unisys also set services and procurement agreements with
Dell
(DELL)
and
Ingram Micro
(IM)
.
Shares of Unisys slipped 56 cents, or 4%, to $13.56 on the New York Stock Exchange.
