Kodak posts narrower 1Q loss, sales edge up
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday its first-quarter loss narrowed to $115 million as it chases a bigger stake in digital photography.
Hit by carry-over restructuring charges after navigating a four-year digital overhaul, the photography products maker lost the equivalent of 40 cents a share in the January-March quarter, compared with a loss of $151 million, or 53 cents a share, a year earlier.
Sales rose 1 percent to $2.093 billion from $2.08 billion.
Excluding one-time items totaling $2 million, or 1 cent a share, operating losses came to $112 million, or 39 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected, on average, a loss of 3 cents a share on $2.037 billion in revenue.
Its shares slipped 17 cents to $17.72 in premarket trading.
Kodak blamed the shortfall on higher-than-expected tax provisions and increased inkjet printer investments in both its consumer photography and commercial graphic communications businesses.
Digital sales rose 10 percent to $1.366 billion from $1.245 billion a year earlier, while traditional film-based revenue slumped 13 percent to $724 million from $830 million.
Sales in consumer digital imaging rose 20 percent to $554 million. But the division recorded an operating loss of $111 million, versus a loss of $75 million a year earlier, as it invested in its fledgling consumer inkjet printer business.
Graphic communications sales rose 4 percent to $812 million but operating losses came to $1 million, compared with a profit of $9 million a year earlier. Kodak attributed the decline mainly to higher aluminum costs and inkjet research costs.
Late this month, the company is aiming to shake up the commercial market with a 2,000-page-a-minute, highly customizable inkjet machine that delivers offset-print quality.
Sales in its film and photofinishing unit fell 13 percent to $724 million, partly reflecting higher prices for silver and other raw material costs and the impact of the Hollywood writers' strike.
After accumulating more than $2 billion in net losses over three years, Kodak has posted net profits in four of the last six quarters.
Converting the bulk of its business from high-profit film to more highly competitive digital technology cost Kodak $3.4 billion from 2004 through 2007. It chopped its work force from 64,000 to 26,900, eliminating 4,275 jobs in 2007 alone and selling a health-imaging unit that employed 8,100 people.
Through 2011, Kodak has said it expects revenues to rise 5 percent a year, driven by a 10 percent to 12 percent annual rise in digital sales. Operating profits, it forecasts, will more than triple to $1 billion.
