Earnings Roundup: E-Loan, Multex.com come through

E-Loan Inc. (Nasdaq: EELN) slipped past Street estimates in its fourth quarter Thursday, losing $11.8 million, or 28 cents a share, on sales of $7.7 million.

First Call consensus expected the online mortgage broker to lose 31 cents a share in the quarter.

E-Loan shares closed off 13/16 to 15 15/16 ahead of the earnings report.

The $7.7 million in sales represents a 155 percent jump from the year-ago quarter when it lost $3.9 million, or 12 cents a share, on sales of $3 million.

In the quarter, purchase mortgage fundings grew to 63 percent of total mortgage fundings, an increase from just 4 percent of total mortgage revenues in the first quarter. The auto portion of E-Loan's product line contributed 32 percent of overall revenues during the fourth quarter.

"We made great progress in 1999 to establish E-Loan as a recognized leader in online consumer lending," said CEO Chris Larsen in a prepared release. "We continue to execute on our strategy to improve the loan process by fully developing our business model and offering the best value proposition to consumers."

For the year, E-Loan lost $39.9 million, or $1.08 a share, on sales of $22.1 million compared to a loss of $9.9 million, or 37 cents a share, on sales of $6.8 million in fiscal 1998.

E-Loan shares moved up to a 52-week high of 74 3/8 in July before falling to a low of 14 earlier this month.

Seven of the 11 analysts tracking the stock rate it a "hold."

First Call consensus expects it to lose $1.04 a share in fiscal 2000.

Among other technology companies reporting earnings Thursday: