LEXMARK PROFITS FALLS,SETS JOB CUTS

[Anonymous]

Lexmark profit falls, sets job cuts
Printer maker says results hurt by tax-related costs, will cut 275 jobs; 3Q outlook below forecasts.
July 05NEW
YORK  – Computer printer maker Lexmark International Inc. said
Tuesday that second-quarter profit fell sharply, hurt by tax-related
costs, and said it has plans to cut 275 jobs to trim costs.

Lexmark (down $8.37 to $60.18) also
provided a third-quarter outlook that was short of Wall Street
forecasts, and its stock fell 2 percent.

Lexington, Kentucky-based Lexmark,
which supplies printers to Dell Inc. and competes with Hewlett-Packard
Co. (down $0.11 to $24.19), posted net income of $79.9 million, or 64
cents a share, down from $136.6 million, or $1.02 a share, a year
before.

Excluding a tax cost of $53 million
from the repatriation of foreign earnings, the quarterly profit was
$1.06, which matched Wall Street analysts’ expectations, according to
Reuters Estimates.

Second-quarter revenue rose 3 percent
to $1.28 billion compared to $1.25 billion, driven by 9 percent growth
of laser and inkjet supplies revenue, but fell short of the $1.33
billion that had been expected by analysts.

Lexmark said it plans to reduce its
work force by about 275 employees through the first half of 2006, with
a majority of those affected exiting in the third quarter of 2005.
Lexmark ended 2004 with 13,400 employees.

As a result of the cuts, the company
expects to take charges of about $26 million pretax, with some $13
million to be recorded in the third quarter.

In preopening dealings, Lexmark
shares fell 2 percent to $67 on the Inet system from Monday’s close of
$68.55 on the New York Stock Exchange

[Author]

July 27, 2005 at 11:41 AM