Earnings Reports for July 27

— -- Celera Losses Widen as Sales Triple

Celera Genomics, whichlast month made history by announcing it had finished a roughdraft of the human genome, said fiscalfourth-quarter loss widened 25 percent despite a near triplingof sales for its genetic subscription business.

The company, which sells genetic data and related servicesto large drug makers, said its net loss in the three monthsended June 30 rose to $24.9 million, or 43 cents a share, from$19.9 million, or 39 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, were forecasting a loss of 35 cents ashare, according to First Call/Thomson Financial.

Revenues, meanwhile, rose to $15 million from $5.1 million,a year ago.

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Dow Chemical Earnings Up 26%

Dow Chemical Co. said second-quarterprofits rose 29 percent despite higher raw materials costs. The Midland, Mich.-based chemical giant said net income climbed to $527 million, or 77 cents per dilutedshare, from $410 million, or 61 cents per diluted share a yearago.

The quarterly figures beat Wall Street’s average estimate of74 cents a share, according to a survey of analysts by FirstCall/Thomson Financial.

Sales rose 22 percent to $5.63 billion from $4.62 billion,helped by a 13 percent jump in prices and a 9 percent increasein volume.

Dow, which is acquiring rival Union Carbide Corp. in a dealthat will make it second only to DuPont Co. in worldwide sales,said it was helped in the quarter by its a diverse business mix,both in terms of products and geography. Dow’s takeover of Union Carbide is expected to be completedin the third quarter, later than originally thought.

In its so-called performance chemical and performanceplastics businesses, the company saw sharply higher volumesduring the quarter.

Crude oil, one of the main raw materials in the industry,averaged about $28 in the quarter, about $10 a barrel higherthan the same period last year, but have recently showed signsof slipping because of additional production.

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Earthlink Losses Less Than Expected

EarthLink Inc. said it lost less moneythan expected in the second quarter, thanks to a 47 percent jump inthe number of customers for its Internet service.

Atlanta-based EarthLink, the country’s second-largest Internetservice provider after America Online, reported a $35.2 millionloss in the April-June period, or 29 cents per share not countingone-time items. That was better than the 36 cent-per-share lossanticipated by analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial.

Including the one-time items, EarthLink lost $63.7 million, or52 cents a share, compared with a loss of $39.7 million, or 35cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

The quarter’s primary expense was EarthLink’s $300 millionpurchase last month of OneMain.com, a Virginia ISP with 762,000subscribers. EarthLink estimates it will have 5 million subscribersby the end of the year.

“Frankly, the investment community would like to see moregrowth,” said Fred Moran, head of Internet research at Jefferiesand Co. “The 5 million subscribers is what we would consider aconservative number, very achievable.

“We still like EarthLink long term, but we’re cautious shortterm given the volatility of Internet stocks,” he said.

EarthLink said it had 3.69 million subscribers at the end of thequarter, a 47 percent increase in its membership from a year ago.Of those, about 80,000 were customers of its high-speed Internetservices, a 78 percent jump from the first three months of 2000.

Atlanta-based MindSpring Enterprises bought Earthlink, formerlybased in Pasadena, Calif., last year. The company still has someoperations in Southern California.

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Ralston Purina Posts Modest Gain

Pet food maker Ralston PurinaCo. said profitability improved and international sales grew in its fiscal third quarter. The company’s earnings fell shy of Wall Street estimates. The St. Louis-based maker of Puppy Chow and Cat Chow reported earnings of $64.3 million, or 22 cents per diluted share. Analysts onaverage had expected earnings of 23 cents a share, according toFirst Call/Thomson Financial.

In the 1999 third quarter Ralston Purina had pro formaearnings from continuing operations, before unusual items, of$63.2 million, or 20 cents a share. The company said pro formacomparisons were necessary because Ralston Purina spun off itsbattery products business in April.

Ralston Purina shares were near their 52-week low on Wall Street.

Sales in the quarter rose 28 percent to $668.3 million from$650.1 million a year ago.

The company said sales in the North American pet foodsdivision were flat in the third quarter, while profitabilityrose 7 percent on lower ingredient costs.

International pet food sales increased 11 percent, whileprofitability jumped 36 percent.

The company said higher profitability in the quarter waslargely offset by lower equity earnings from its investment in Interstate Bakeries Corp.

One Wall Street analyst cited by Reuters characterized the results as solid and said it appeared as if Ralston-Purina fared well despitethe introduction into supermarkets of Procter & Gamble Co.’s premium pet foodbrand, Iams.

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Sales, Profits Up at Starbucks

Starbucks Corp. reported a 31 percent gain in salesand a 42 percent increase in profits in the third quarter. Starbucks’ net profits in the quarter increasedto $34.9 million, or 18 cents per share, compared with $24.6million, or 13 cents per share, in 1999. The results matchedestimates of analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial.

Revenues jumped to $556 million, up from $424 million in thesame period a year ago.

Starbucks also announced that it has raised the number of newstores it plans to open this year from 750 to 900 worldwide. Thechain now has 3,100 stores.

For the nine months ended July 2, the company earned $93million, or 48 cents per share, on sales of $1.6 billion. Thatcompares with profits of $69 million, or 37 cents per share, onsales of $1.2 billion for the first nine months of 1999.BACK TO TOP

Texaco Profits Double

Texaco Inc. said second-quarter income more thandoubled thanks to sharply higher crude oil and natural gasprices. The White Plains, N.Y-based oil company said income beforespecial items rose to $641 million, or $1.17 a share, from $286million, or 52 cents, in the same period a year a year ago.Revenues rose to $12 billion from $8.3 billion.

Analysts on average were forecasting $1.18 a share. Texaco earned $614 million in its exploration andproduction business, which is closely tied to commodity prices. That was up from $226 million posted in the same period last year.

Rivals Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. posted similarlyrosy profits in their exploration and production business thanks to high energy prices. Crude oil prices averaged about $28.75 a barrel inthe quarter, up more than $10 from a yearago, as members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel largely honored an agreement to restrict supplies.

Natural gas prices were also red-hot during the quarter,averaging about $3.65 compared to $2.25 per million Britishthermal units in the same period a year ago.

But Texaco was largely unable to pass along the soaring costs ofcrude oil in its sales of gasoline and other fuels,which cut into profits in the company’s refining, marketingand transportation business.

While Exxon Mobil said earlier this week that its capitalspending would continue to rise over the remainder of the year,taking advantage of the higher cash flow which has accompaniedstrong crude prices, Texaco gave little indication of futurespending plans.

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Unocal Beats Street Estimates

Independent oil andnatural gas company Unocal Corp. said sharply higheroil and gas prices lifted its second-quarter profits more than10 times, easily beating Wall Street estimates. Unocal, based in El Segundo, Calif., said operating earningsrose to $170 million, or 69 cents per diluted share, from $16million, or 6 cents, in last year’s second quarter.

The earnings topped Wall Street analysts’ expectations of 63cents per share, as reported by First Call/Thomson Financial.

The company said total revenues hit $2.248 billion for thequarter compared with last year’s $1.441 billion, thanks in partto soaring oil and natural gas prices, which have helpedcompanies perform better industrywide.

Roger C. Beach, Unocal’s chairman and chief executive officer, said he expects strong oil and natural gas priceswill mean continued profit growth in the remainder of the year. BACK TO TOP

WorldCom Earns $1.33 Billion

WorldCom said second-quarter earningsrose 47 percent to 1.33 billion, from $865 million in the same period a year ago. The nation’s No. 2 provider of long-distance telephone service also said it may may create separate companies or trackingstocks for its voice telephone operations. Separating parts of the voice telephone business would allowWorldCom to focus on providing more lucrative data, Internet andinternational services to corporate customers.

On a per-share basis, WorldCom’s profits, excluding one-time items, came in at 46 cents, up from 31 cents a year ago.

The results matched Wall Street expectations of 46 cents ashare, according to analysts surveyed by research firm FirstCall/Thomson Financial.

Clinton, Miss.-based WorldCom said net income, includingone-time items, rose to $1.28 billion, or 44 cents share in thesecond quarter, ended June 30, 2000.

The company said revenuesrose to $10.19 billion, from $9.07 billion a year ago. Data,Internet and international revenues grew 30 percent to $4.9billion and now account for 48 percent of WorldCom’s totalrevenues.

International revenues increased 31 percent to $1.4 billion,driven by strong sales in Europe, as well as increasingrevenues in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions. Voicerevenues grew 4 percent to $2.75 billion.

WorldCom president and CEO Bernie Ebbers said he was disappointed that a proposed $129 billion merger with Sprint was blocked by federal and European regulators, butsaid the company is looking to the future. He said WorldCom would continue to expand its global network bysharpening its focus on “higher-margin, value-added services inthe commercial data, Internet and international markets.” The collapse of the Sprint deal left WorldCom without a wirelesssegment of its own. That segment of telecommunications is the fastestgrowing in the United States, said David Burks, an analyst with J.J.B. Hilliard W.L. Lyons inLouisville, Ky.

Burks said the spin-off possibility raised by Ebbers wasn’t surprisinggiven the company’s interest in the Internet.

The company has been shifting away from slower-growingbusinesses such as the consumer long-distance and wholesalemarkets due to increased competition and pricing pressure.

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The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.