Earnings Reports for July 11

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Paper Giant’s Profits Triple

International Paper Co., the world’s biggest paper and forest products company, today said its fiscal second-quarter net income more than tripled on higher pulp and paper prices and cost savings fromrecent mergers, beating analysts’ expectations.

Profits in the three months ended June 30 rose to $315million, or 75 cents per diluted share excluding a $45 millioncharge after tax on facility closure and severance reservesfollowing its takeover of Champion International. This comparedto profits of $99 million, or 24 cents a share, in the year-agoquarter excluding extraordinary items. Revenues in the latestperiod rose about 12 percent to $6.8 billion from $6.0 billionin the year-ago quarter.

Analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial had forecastearnings of 74 cents per share in the latest quarter.

The company, which this spring agreed to acquire ChampionInternational for $7.3 billion in cash and stock, has benefitedfrom higher pulp prices and higher container prices in thequarter, analyst Mark Wilde of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. “ForIP, the big horse is paper, and in this quarter, the big horsewill be better than last quarter,” he said before theannouncement.

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Yahoo! Reports Sharp Rise in Earnings

Internet media giant Yahoo! Inc reported unexpectedly sharp increases insecond-quarter earnings and revenues as well as overall trafficto its Web properties. The company said its pro forma net income, excluding certainunusual items, totalled $74 million or 12 cents per dilutedshare in the second quarter, compared with $27.1 million or 5 cents cents per diluted share in the year-ago period. The latestearnings exceeded the consensus analyst forecast for a profit of10 cents per share.

Yahoo also said that sales grew to $270.1 million from$128.6 million the year before, while page views rose to anaverage 680 million per day in June, up from 625 million inMarch.