Motorola earnings beat expectations
It reports earnings per share of 9 cents on revenue of $5.4 billion and offers a cheery outlook for current quarter, which will include sales of new Droid X.
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Motorola turned in a solid second quarter, with both revenue and earnings outpacing analysts' expectations.
The company also said it foresees good results for the current quarter, in part on the expected strength of sales of its new Droid X smartphone, which went on sale in mid-July and quickly sold out at many stores.
"The Droid X launch has been very well received," said Sanjay Jha, Motorola co-chief executive officer and CEO of Motorola Mobility, in a statement. "As we continue to execute on our business strategy, we are in a strong position to continue improving our share in the rapidly growing smartphone market and improving our operating performance."
For the second quarter, which ended July 3, Motorola reported revenue of $5.414 billion. That's down slightly from the $5.497 billion the company took in during the same period a year ago, but it was good enough to beat analysts' estimates, which averaged $5.19 billion.
Second-quarter earnings, setting aside certain costs, were 9 cents per share, one penny ahead of expectations and up from 3 cents per share for the year-ago quarter.
Motorola said during the second quarter it shipped 8.3 million handsets, including 2.7 million smartphones. Sales for its Mobile Devices unit were $1.7 billion, a drop of 6 percent year over year.
For the third quarter, Motorola said it expects earnings of 10 cents to 12 cents per share. Putting a positive spin on its outlook, the company cited favorable signs including not only the Droid X launch but also the $1.2 billion sale of the majority of its networks business to Nokia Siemens Networks.
