Financial news roundup: JDS, Arris, Insight

Susan Rush
From the October 25th edition of CED Broadband Direct

As the earnings parade continues to march on, results from JDS Uniphase Corp., Arris and Insight Communications Company offer a mixed bag.

JDS Uniphase
Despite posting a narrower first quarter loss, JDS Uniphase shares fell nearly 10 percent in midday trading as the network gear maker recorded its seventh consecutive quarterly dip in revenue.

The company reported $193 million in net sales, down from $222 million in the previous quarter and $329 million a year ago.

Its first quarter loss narrowed from $1.2 billion, or 93 cents a share a year ago to $521 million, or 37 cents a share.

Looking ahead, JDS expects to record between $150 million and $160 million in sales in the second quarter. If the company's projections are on target, revenue will dip as much as 20 percent from the first quarter and fall below analysts' consensus estimates of $179 million, according to Thomson Financial.

To pare expenses, JDS plans to make additional workforce reductions in the current quarter. Although the company did not outline specifics, it said the cuts will reduce operating expenses by $130 million annually. The company has roughly 8,000 employees. In July 2001, JDS employed 29,000. Further plant reductions also are expected. The company expects to reduce its facilities to 11. At its peak, JDS had 42 facilities.

Arris
Although Arris posted a sequential increase in revenue, the company's shares plunged 20 percent to new 52-week low of $2.08, as the company reported slower deployments of customer premise gear for cable telephony services.

For the just ended third quarter, Arris recorded revenue of $197.6 million, up from $194.1 million in the previous quarter. Cash earnings were 10 cents, excluding unusual items, which beat analysts' estimates by 4 cents a share.

Sales from the broadband division increased from $124.1 million a year ago to $132.3 million.

Despite an increase in revenue during the quarter, Arris said deployments of customer premise telephony gear, including deployments to AT&T Broadband, did not grow as rapidly as anticipated in the period, and "as a result we expect demand for new voice ports to slow as deployments catch up with recent purchases." Arris also noted "uncertainties" involving the pending Comcast-AT&T Broadband merger, but expected to benefit longer term from the creation of the cable giant.

Insight Communications
Meanwhile, Insight Communications posted revenue of $204.9 million in revenue, up 11.7 percent from a year ago. The company attributed the revenue increase to gains in high-speed data and digital services.

During the quarter, Insight had 87,200 net digital additions and 39,700 net high-speed data additions. At the end of the quarter, Insight had 317,000 digital customers and 124,600 high-speed data customers.

As of 12:19 p.m. EDT, Insight shares were up 40 cents to $9.50.