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The Japanese automobile and motorcycle maker forecast it would earn 215 billion yen for the fiscal year through March, down nearly 60 percent from the 534 billion yen it earned the previous fiscal year.
Honda had scrapped its earnings forecast in October, when it reported its previous quarterly results, because the flooding in Thailand — a key Asian production hub for Honda and many Japanese companies — made the outlook too uncertain.
Honda stopped making cars at its automobile assembly plant in Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, in October after it was damaged in the worst floods to hit Thailand in 50 years. The company said that it was making progress on draining the plant of flood water and cleaning up equipment, and that production was expected to resume by the end of March.
The flooding also disrupted the output at many Honda suppliers in Thailand, forcing it to reduce production as far away as the U.S. and Canada. Honda said production in neighboring Asian countries interrupted by the problems in Thailand was expected to return to normal by April.
All told, the problems related to flooding in Thailand have cost the company 260,000 vehicles in lost production worldwide, according to Tomohiro Okada, a company spokesman.
Quarterly sales slid 8 percent during the fiscal third quarter.
The strong yen, which erodes Japanese exporters' foreign earned income when repatriated, also ate into the company's income.
UPS
NEW YORK — UPS said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter net income slid because of an accounting charge, but its adjusted results topped Wall Street's expectations.
Excluding the charge, profit rose 21 percent. The world's largest package delivery company credited the increase to an improving U.S. package business that's making up for slower sales growth overseas. United Parcel Service Inc. also forecast Tuesday that its full-year results would mostly top analysts' forecasts.
In the fourth quarter, the Atlanta company earned $725 million, or 74 cents per share, compared with $1.3 billion, or $1.02 per share, a year earlier. Excluding a charge tied to how UPS accounts for pensions and retirement plans, it earned $1.28 per share in the latest quarter.
Revenue rose 6 percent to $14.17 billion.
Amazon.com
The world's largest Internet retailer missed analysts' fourth-quarter revenue estimates and reported a 57 percent decline in profit, dragged down by shipping costs and the money-losing Kindle Fire.
Net income for Amazon.com fell to $177 million, or 38 cents a share, from $416 million, or 91 cents, a year earlier, the Seattle-based company said Tuesday. Analysts had projected 16 cents, according to a Bloomberg survey. Sales rose 35 percent to $17.4 billion, compared with an estimate of $18.3 billion.
Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is squeezing profit margins in search of growth, looking to add customers by pushing free shipping and offering its Kindle devices at cut-rate prices. Amazon's Prime program, which offers unlimited two-day shipping for $79 a year, boosted expenses over the holiday shopping season, said Jason Helfstein, an analyst at New York- based Oppenheimer & Co.
Mattel
NEW YORK — Strong holiday demand for toys including Barbie and Monster High dolls helped push Mattel Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit up a better-than-expected 14 percent.
But there were a few lumps of coal in the report, as U.S. sales dipped and weakness continued at the company's Fisher-Price unit.
The holiday quarter is crucial for toy makers, who can make up to half of their annual sales during the period.
Mattel, which is the No. 1 U.S. toy maker, reported Tuesday that its net income rose to $370.6 million, or $1.07 per share, for the period ended Dec. 31. That's up from $325.2 million, or 89 cents per share, a year ago.
Exxon Mobil
NEW YORK — Exxon Mobil's fourth-quarter profit rose 2 percent as higher oil prices offset a drop in production.
The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Tuesday that it sold crude between October and December for 27 percent more than one year ago. Natural gas prices also jumped 27 percent outside the United States.
Higher prices pushed net income to $9.4 billion, or $1.97 per share, in the fourth quarter, matching Wall Street expectations. It made $9.25 billion, or $1.85 per share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose 15.6 percent to $121.6 billion in the latest quarter.
Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, said that production declined nearly 9 percent in the quarter.
Pfizer
Fourth-quarter results handily beat analysts' expectations on Tuesday, even though drugmaker Pfizer's profit fell by half because of one-time charges and a big drop in U.S. revenue lost to new generic competition for blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor.
Cuts in the sales force and other costs and strong sales outside its pharmaceutical business helped the New York-based company. But it significantly trimmed its full-year forecasts for both earnings per share and revenue.
Pfizer blamed recent changes in foreign exchange rates, as the strengthening of the dollar against other currencies reduces the value of foreign sales, a factor other drugmakers have been citing this month.
The maker of Viagra said net income was $1.44 billion, or 19 cents per share, down from $2.89 billion, or 36 cents per share, a year earlier.
Generic competition to multiple drugs reduced revenue to $16.7 billion, down 4 percent from $17.4 billion in 2010's fourth quarter.
Archer Daniels Midland
The world's largest grain processor on Tuesday reported an 89 percent drop in second-quarter profit, missing analysts' estimates after a slump in U.S. grain exports cut earnings at its trading unit.
Archer Daniels Midland's net income fell to $80 million, or 12 cents a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, from $732 million, or $1.14, a year earlier. ADM has missed analysts' estimates for three straight quarters.
— From World-Herald Press Services
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