CORPORATE REPORT: (UPDATED) Earnings, dividends and more

Iberiabank Corp. — The Louisiana bank that became one of Southwest Florida’s largest after buying the failed Century Bank and Orion Bank in 2009 posted a 12.6 percent increase in first-quarter profit. For the January-through-March period, Iberiabank earned $14.6 million, or 54 cents per share, compared with year-ago earnings in the first quarter of $13 million, or 59 cents per share. The latest quarter included a 4-cent-per-share impact for acquisition expenses. A year ago, that cost totaled 7 cents per share. In addition to acquiring failed banks with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guaranteeing large portions of any loan failures, Iberiabank has two acquisitions in the works: Lake Charles, La.-based Cameron Bancshares Inc. in a stock-for-stock deal valued at $133 million and a $40 million deal to buy Metairie, La.-based Omni Bancshares Inc. that will expand Iberiabank in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas. During the latest quarter, the company set aside $5.5 million for possible loan losses, compared with $13.2 million during the first quarter of 2010 and $11.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. Iberiabank said that during the first quarter, commercial loans rose 4 percent, or $132 million, consumer loans grew by 4 percent, or $43 million, while mortgage loans fell $26 million, or 7 percent. The results were released after financial markets closed Tuesday.

Whirlpool Corp. — First-quarter net income at the Benton Harbor, Mich., company whose brands include Maytag and Kitchenaid rose 3 percent as it sold more appliances even after it raised prices and reduced expenses to help combat rising material costs. For the period ended March 31, Whirlpool’s net income rose to $169 million, or $2.17 per share. That’s up from $164 million, or $2.13 per share, a year ago. Excluding an adjustment to lower the total cost of a dishwasher recall, earnings were $2.11 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $1.55 per share. Revenue climbed 3 percent to $4.4 billion as sales improved, besting Wall Street’s $4.26 billion. The world’s biggest appliance maker now anticipates its raw material costs will range from $400 million to $450 million for the year. That is higher than the $250 million to $300 million projection given in February. In North America, revenue rose slightly to $2.3 billion while unit shipments climbed about 4 percent. U.S. shipments of major appliances dipped about 1 percent. Marc Bitzer, president of Whirlpool North America, said the division was helped by reduced promotions and higher prices. Revenue for Europe, the Middle East and Africa edged up 1 percent to $743 million, with industry unit demand flat. Latin America and Asia both reported 8 percent revenue increases. Looking ahead, Whirlpool still expects full-year earnings of $12 to $13 per share. Analysts predict $11.87 per share for the year. Whirlpool’s stock fell 61 cents to $87.25 in morning trading.

Corning Inc. — The specialty glass maker said its first-quarter profit fell 8 percent, largely because of a higher tax rate. But its revenue surged 24 percent on robust sales of glass for flat-screen televisions, computers and mobile devices. The results beat Wall Street expectations. The world’s largest maker of liquid-crystal-display glass said its net income fell to $748 million, or 47 cents per share, in the January-March period, down from $816 million, or 52 cents per share, a year ago. The company attributed the decline mainly to an increase in its tax rate to 13 percent from 3 percent last year. The earnings were still 3 cents a share higher than analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected. Revenue jumped to $1.92 billion from $1.55 billion a year ago. Analysts expected $1.8 billion. Corning saw year-over-year and sequential growth in all five of its business units — from LCD-TV and Gorilla cover glass to auto-pollution filters, research labware, and optical fiber and cable. “We are succeeding at building a bigger, more balanced company,” Corning’s chief financial officer, Jim Flaws, said in a conference call with analysts. “We strongly believe that every one of our segments will have significant growth this year and over the next several years.”Revenue from Corning’s display technologies segment edged up 1 percent to $790 million, with glass volume rising 5 percent as predicted. The company said it expects glass volume in the April-June quarter to be consistent with the first quarter. DisplaySearch, a market-research firm in Austin, Texas, estimates that 217 million LCD-TVs will be shipped worldwide in 2011, up 13.2 percent from 2010. In North America, shipments are expected to rise 5.8 percent to 40.5 million units. While LCD glass is Corning’s biggest business by far, the 159-year-old company also makes ceramic auto-pollution filters and is the world’s largest producer of optical fiber and cable. Based in western New York, it employs 24,500 people. Propelled by ultra-strong Gorilla glass, which is now migrating from handheld and tablet devices to high-end TVs, specialty materials revenue more than doubled to $254 million. Corning has said sales of Gorilla glass could surge to $1 billion this year from $250 million in 2010. Sony Corp. is incorporating Gorilla glass in a new line of Bravia TVs this year. Invented in 1962, Gorilla found commercial use only in 2008. LG Display Co. and Asahi Glass Co. make competing products. Revenue in Corning’s telecommunications unit jumped 30 percent to $474 million on higher demand for fiber-to-the-home products in North America and Europe. The company said it churned out more optical fiber in March than in any month in its history. Environmental technologies sales jumped 35 percent to $192 million, driven by higher-than-expected demand for auto-pollution filters. Corning shares rose 61 cents, or 3 percent, to $21.21 in morning trading. It is trading at the upper end of a 52-week range of $15.45 to $23.43.

Northrop Grumman — The defense contractor’s first-quarter net income rose 13 percent as it spun off its shipbuilding business and adjusted its operations to accommodate shifting government priorities. The company, based in Los Angeles, boosted its full-year outlook, saying restructuring will help spur new growth in the face of Pentagon spending cuts. Northrop’s net income for the January-to-March quarter increased to $530 million, or $1.79 per share, from $469 million, or $1.53 per share in the same period a year earlier. Revenue decreased 3 percent, with weaker results in all four of its business segments. Northrop raised its full-year guidance for earnings from continuing operations. It expects to $6.50 to $6.70 per share, up from earlier guidance of $6.40 to $6.60 per share. The quarter’s results include income from a shipbuilding operation that Northrop spun off at the end of the quarter. Without the spinoff, earnings per share would have been $1.67. Wall Street had been looking for earnings of $1.56 per share, according to a poll of analysts by FactSet. Year-ago revenue figures were boosted by a joint venture in Nevada. The results no longer include that operation, which contributed $136 million. Northrop received $1.43 billion from the shipbuilder sale. Part of that money will pay for an expanded share repurchase program. The company authorized its board to rebuy up to $4 billion of common stock, about one-fifth of the shares outstanding based on Tuesday’s closing price. Also Wednesday, Northrop increased its quarterly dividend by 6 percent, to 50 cents per share from 47 cents per share. The dividend is payable on June 11 to people holding shares on May 31. Northrop has been boosting its quarterly dividend for eight years. Northrop spun off its beleaguered shipbuilding division into a separate company near the end of the first quarter. The company had struggled with a slowdown in Navy shipbuilding contracts and increased competition from rivals like General Dynamics Corp. The partisan spending battles in Washington have defense contractors such as Northrop worried about a long-term revenue squeeze. Defense spending is growing more slowly as the government tightens its belt and the U.S. military reduces its presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. The government is operating under a continuing budget resolution, meaning that spending was frozen at 2010 budget levels. That halted several defense programs, adding to the industry’s woes. In early March, Northrop blamed spending cutbacks for the elimination of 500 positions in its Electronics Systems division, based in Linthicum, Md. Company shares rose $1.00, or 2 percent, to $63.49 in early trading Wednesday.

Boeing Co. — The large maker of airplanes and defense contractor said its first-quarter profit rose to $586 million, enough to beat Wall Street’s expectations, and reaffirmed its profit and revenue guidance for the full year. Boeing earned 78 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting a profit of 70 cents per share. The profit rose from a year-earlier $519 million, or 70 cents per share, which was reduced by a one-time charge of 20 cents per share. Operating profits fell by 15 percent. Revenue was down 2 percent to $14.91 billion. That was below the analyst expectation of $15.27 billion. Earnings from operations in the commercial airplane unit dropped 25 percent to $509 million. Revenue fell 5 percent to $7.12 billion as Boeing delivered fewer 777s than a year earlier. Later this year Boeing plans to raise 777 production to 7 per month, from 5 per month now.

Defense revenue was flat at $7.62 billion. Earnings from operations rose 1 percent to $671 million, mostly from a jump in profits from military planes.

Boeing said its profit and revenue expectations for the full year are unchanged, with a profit of $3.80 to $4 per share and revenue of $68 billion to $71 billion. It still expects to deliver the new 787 during the third quarter and the freighter version of its new 747-8 in mid-2011.

ConocoPhillips — The Houston oil company said first-quarter earnings jumped 43 percent as oil prices increased, but its production and refining businesses still suffered from a variety of disruptions including the uprising in Libya. It reported net income of $3 billion, or $2.09 per share, in the first three months of the year, up from $2.1 billion, or $1.40 per share, a year earlier. Revenue increased 27 percent to $58.25 billion. Excluding gains from the sale of shares in Russian oil company Lukoil and other assets, ConocoPhillips said it earned $2.6 billion, or $1.82 per share. Profits increased as oil and natural gas liquids prices increased 27 percent in the quarter to $91.55 per barrel. Natural gas prices fell by 6 percent to $5.22 per 1,000 cubic feet. The adjusted earnings fell short of Wall Street expectations, however. Analysts, who typically exclude one-time items, expected the company to earn $1.93 per share, according to FactSet. Analysts expected lower revenue of $53.4 billion. Shares fell $1.95, or 2.4 percent, to $79.25 per share in morning trading. CEO Jim Mulva said oil production dropped in the January-March quarter by 8 percent to 1.7 million barrels per day as it dealt with a series of unexpected shutdowns during the quarter. Conoco said the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System stalled oil shipments in January. A supply vessel collided with the company’s Britannia platform, and the rebellion in Libya also hurt production. Altogether, the unplanned shutdowns cut profits by about $100 million. Exploration and production profits increased 28 percent to $2.35 billion for the quarter. Meanwhile, the company’s refining and marketing business reported a profit of $482 million after posting a $4 million loss in the same period last year. The refining business benefited from higher fuel prices and profit margins, though lower refining activity along the Gulf coast pushed total refining activity down to 87 percent in the quarter in the U.S., compared with 88 percent in the same period last year. Mulva said the drop in refining activity reduced company earnings by another $50 million in the quarter.

WellPoint Inc. — The largest publicly traded health insurer based on enrollment said a drop in expenses helped its first-quarter net income rise nearly 6 percent, even as it spent more than $700 million buying back shares. It raised its 2011 earnings forecast. WellPoint earned $926.6 million, or $2.44 per share, in the three months that ended March 31. That’s up from $876.8 million, or $1.96 per share, a year earlier, when the insurer had 67 million more shares. Total revenue fell slightly to $14.89 billion as premiums, the largest portion of WellPoint’s revenue, slipped 1.6 percent. Adjusted earnings, which exclude $36 million in investment gains, were $2.35 per share. WellPoint now expects 2011 earnings of at least $6.70 per share, up from $6.30 per share, a forecast analysts had labeled conservative. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect, on average, earnings of $6.62 per share this year. The performance beat analyst expectations. Analysts polled by FactSet forecast a profit of $1.89 per share on $14.65 billion in revenue. The Indianapolis company operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, including California, New York and Ohio. WellPoint repurchased more than 11 million shares in the first quarter and also spent about $93 million on its first cash dividend payment of 25 cents per share. The insurer announced in February plans to start a quarterly dividend. Stronger financial performances have given insurers a growing supply of cash to spend after stocking the reserves they need to keep for claims. WellPoint competitors Aetna Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. also have started improved dividend payments, and Humana Inc. announced on Tuesday plans for its first dividend since 1993. Continued moderation in medical costs, strong enrollment gains and overall execution helped WellPoint in the first quarter, Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Borsch said in an analyst note. WellPoint’s enrollment grew 1 percent to 34.2 million compared to last year’s first quarter, when it fell 2 percent, mainly due to growth in national accounts it administers for large employers that pay their own claims. The company’s selling, general and administrative expenses fell 4.5 percent to $2.08 billion, and the total spent on medical claims fell 1.4 percent to $11.23 billion, as medical costs came in lower than it expected. The insurer said its medical-loss ratio, which essentially measures the percentage of premiums spent on medical claims, climbed slightly to 82.1 percent in the quarter, partially because of a new health care overhaul requirement. Insurers face a new rule this year that requires them to meet minimum ratios or issue rebates to consumers. The minimums are set at 85 percent for large, employer-sponsored group coverage and 80 percent for small-group and individual plans. Analysts expected WellPoint to be somewhat vulnerable to the new rule because it has a large individual insurance enrollment, and the minimum for those plans is expected to be more challenging for insurers to meet. WellPoint didn’t detail the effect of the new rule, but its medical-loss ratio, or MLR, came in better than several analysts had expected. Company shares climbed $1.21 to $74.18 in premarket trading.

Trustmark Corp. — The lender with 150 banking offices in the South posted a first-quarter profit largely unchanged from a year ago as it continued reducing its number of bad loans. For the three months ending March 31, Trustmark earned $24 million, or 37 cents per share. In the year-ago first-quarter, earnings totaled $23.5 million, or 37 cents per share. Trustmark said nonperforming loans decreased 11.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 to $126.8 million, or just over 2 percent of all its loans. That marked the fourth consecutive quarter that nonperforming loans had been cut, the company said. Nonperforming assets decreased $13.6 million, or 5.9 percent, to $216 million. Net charge-offs for bad loans totaled $7.6 million, a 40 percent drop from the fourth quarter of 2010, Trustmark said. Trustmark took a $7.5 million provision for possible loan losses during the first quarter, down from $15.1 million a year ago and $11.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2010. Trustmark has offices in Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee and Texas.

BP PLC — The U.K.-based oil company posted a 16 percent rise in first-quarter net profits as gains from the sale of major assets to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill outweighed the ongoing cost of that disaster.But replacement cost profit, the measure most closely watched by analysts to indicate an oil company’s health, fell 2 percent as lower production and higher charges from the spill overrode the benefits of a rising crude oil price. Net earnings of $7.2 billion for the three months to March 31, compared with $6.2 billion for the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 18 percent to $88.3 billion after the company sold off more than $24 billion in assets to pay for the Gulf spill. Those asset sales led to a fall in production, however, lowering replacement cost profit to $5.48 billion. The measure is closely watched by analysts because it excludes changes in the value of crude inventories and measures the amount it would cost to replace assets at current prices. It also excludes one-offs such as asset sales.

Chief Executive Bob Dudley has been targeting higher growth exploration to reverse a 30 percent drop in BP’s share price since the April 20, 2010, explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 men and caused the biggest offshore oil leak in U.S. history.

The stock price was up 1.5 percent at 471 pence ($7.80) in early afternoon trade on the London Stock Exchange, but continues to underperform the broader oil and gas sector amid uncertainty about the final spill costs and dismay over a botched Russian deal that is key for renewed growth.

“The group’s future strategy is in disarray, with Russian partners feuding, while rivals such as Shell continue to steal ground,” said Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.

“In all, investors believe that BP can recover from this dire chapter in its history, with market consensus opinion currently denoting a cautious buy,” Bowman added. “However the group’s share price performance summarises the group’s difficulties and challenges ahead.”

Jonathan Jackson, head of equities at Killik & Co., was more positive.

“Although the uncertainty in Russia and the U.S. is likely to overhang the shares, we believe further divestments will continue to highlight the inherent value within BP’s attractive portfolio of assets,” Jackson said. “We remain buyers.”

The catastrophe in the Gulf caused BP to plunge to its first full-year loss in almost 20 years in 2010 and forced the resignation of chief executive Tony Hayward, who was at the helm when the disaster happened.

The first quarter results include a $400 million pretax charge for the oil spill, adding to $40.9 billion set aside by the company last year.

BP last week sued Transocean, the owner of the rig, and contractor Halliburton, for around $40 billion each in damages, based on its estimates of its liabilities.

But the court cases are likely to take years and BP could face tens of billions of dollars more in fines and penalties if it is prosecuted.

In the meantime, production levels have fallen as the London-based company sold oil fields and refineries and U.S. regulators banned further drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP said that production for the first quarter was 3.58 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, an 11 percent drop on the first quarter of 2010. However, it said that fall shrank to 7 percent after adjusting for the effect of acquisitions and divestments and entitlement impacts in its production-sharing agreements.

Most of the decrease in production was weighted toward the company’s highest margin areas, and primarily reflected the impact to Gulf production because of the drilling moratorium, higher turnaround and maintenance activity in the North Sea and in Angola and an interruption to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

Ranged against that production decline was a fire sale of assets, including a $7 billion deal with Apache Corp. that offloaded properties in the U.S., Canada and Egypt, that has so far brought in some $24 billion to help pay for the Gulf spill.

With its future in the U.S. uncertain, BP has signed energy exploration agreements in Indonesia, China, India and Australia. Most notably, it agreed to pay India’s Reliance Industries $7.2 billion for a stake in key oil and gas blocks.

However, its attempts to move into new ground hit a stumbling block in Russia. The company is seeking a $16 billion share swap with Russia’s state-backed OAO Rosneft but the deal was tied up in legal red tape after a dispute with BP’s shareholders in its other Russian venture.

A quartet of Russian billionaires, BP’s partners in the older TNK-BP venture, won an injunction in the London courts, claiming the new deal violates their own agreement with the London-based company.

BP gained some critical breathing room on the Russian problem just hours before its annual general meeting last week when Rosneft agreed to move the deadline to complete the deal to May 16. Wednesday’s earnings report did not provide any update on the situation.

The company also announced Wednesday that it would pay a dividend of 7 cents per share in June, half the size of the dividend it paid out to shareholders for the same quarter in 2010.

The company suspended its dividend for nine months following political and public pressure, reinstating a 7 cent per share payout for the final quarter of 2010. The BP dividend has wider significance in Britain, where it accounts for one pound in every six invested by pension plans.

Including the impact of the Gulf spill, net cash provided by operating activities for the first quarter was $2.4 billion, compared with $7.7 billion in the same period of last year.

GlaxoSmithKline — The pharmaceutical company reported a 14 percent increase in first-quarter net profit, boosted by a gain from selling its remaining stake in Quest Diagnostics. GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Sensodyne toothpaste and Tums antacid tablets, said its net profit for the period was 1.58 billion pounds ($2.6 billion), compared with 1.4 billion pounds in the first quarter of 2010. Revenue fell 10 percent to 6.6 billion pounds, hit by a fall-off in sales of bird flu vaccine, a big seller a year ago, by generic competition for its Valtrex herpes drug and by regulatory curbs on sales of the diabetes drug Avandia. Excluding those drugs, GSK said underlying sales rose 4 percent on the year with strong regional differences. Underlying sales were up 23 percent in emerging markets and 53 percent in Japan, but the company blamed U.S. health care reform and EU austerity measures for declines of 4 percent in the United States and 5 percent in Europe.

GlaxoSmithKline shares were up 1.3 percent at 1,276.5 pence following the report.

GSK sold its stake in Quest, a U.S. medical lab operator, and its North American interests in Zovirax cold sore cream, for 1.2 billion pounds cash, yielding a net profit of 246 million pounds.

Restructuring costs for the quarter were 114 million pounds, down from 220 million pounds a year earlier.

Chief Executive Andrew Witty said the company is on course to achieve 2.2 billion in annual restructuring savings by next year, when it also expects top-line revenue to be growing again.

Volkswagen AG — The German automaker sharply increased net profit to 1.71 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in the first quarter as stronger sales in emerging markets such as China, Argentina, and Russia more than made up for slumps in debt-stricken European countries. Earnings per share of 3.47 euros topped analyst expectations of 3.23 euros. While the company stuck with its forecast, shifting currencies, in particular the weakening U.S. dollar and British pound, were expected to have an effect on the companies finances, as would the rising cost of raw materials such as steel. Company shares rose steadily after Wednesday’s announcement and traded up 6 percent at €117.45 by midafternoon German time.

The company reiterated that this year’s earnings would exceed last year’s, despite a drag on profits from see-sawing exchange rates and higher raw materials prices.

Volkswagen delivered 1.99 million cars worldwide, up 14 percent, outperforming the world auto market, which grew 8.1 percent, the company said. Revenue jumped 31 percent to €37.47 billion.

Big jumps in vehicle deliveries in China, Mexico and Argentina — up 20 percent or more — and in India, where they more than tripled, showed how rapidly growing emerging markets are eclipsing richer countries in Europe as markets for European manufacturers.

Company officials said they had boosted their cash holdings, giving them flexibility to continue expanding and meet their goal of being the world’s largest carmaker by 2018.

“Our brand continued to perform succesfully in the first three months of 2011,” the company’s chief financial officer, Hans Dieter Poetsch, said on a conference call. “Thanks in particular to higher revenue and a firm hand on operating costs, operating earnings more than tripled to €2.9 billion.”

The company said it had seen only very limited effects on parts supplies due to the earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan and that earnings had not been affected.

Analyst Max Warburton at Sanford C. Bernstein called the result “a stunning beat,” especially when measured by the EBIT figure, or earnings before interest and taxes, of €2.9 billion, which represents a “fantastic” operating profit margin of 7.8 percent across the group.

That includes not just higher-margin Audi but the mass market Volkswagen brand as well, a segment where margins are usually lower.

Warburton said the earnings appear to be a part of a wider trend in favor of German cars that also helps competitors BMW AG and Daimler AG, which traded up 2.1 and 2.7 percent.

Sales in Western Europe grew more slowly, and were hard hit in countries saddled with heavy government debt and slow growth. Sales in Britain rose only 2.4 percent, while they were flat in Italy and sank in Spain, where the unemployment rate is around 20 percent.

Volkswagen’s home market, Germany, showed some recovery, with sales bouncing back to its 10-year average for the first quarter as a stronger job market gave consumers more confidence.

VW unit sales in the United States rose 16 percent amid stronger consumer confidence, although the market remains far below the credit-boom period 1999-2007.

Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen AG includes the Volkswagen, SEAT, and Skoda mass-market brands, and luxury makes Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti.

The company said it was making progress toward completing its complex merger with Porsche. Volkswagen has a 49.9 percent share in Porsche’s automaking operations and has the right to buy the rest later, but a merger with Porsche’s parent company has been held up by legal questions.

Stuttgart-based Porsche separately announced it had more than doubled operating earnings to €496 million in the first quarter, and raised sales revenue 10 percent to €2.28 billion. Unit sales rose 13 percent to 23,442 vehicles in the quarter, an increase of 13 percent from a year earlier.

Credit Suisse — The Zurich-based bank reported a 45 percent drop in first-quarter net profits, not as bad as analysts had expected, due to the impact of a strong Swiss franc, a one-off charge and stricter rules for capital reserves. The bank said its net profit for the first three months of the year fell to 1.14 billion Swiss francs ($1.31 billion) from 2.06 billion francs a year earlier. Core revenue fell 13 percent to 7.81 billion francs. Analysts had expected the slide in earnings as fixed-income sales and trading income had also hurt rival UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, which reported its own earnings on Tuesday. Credit Suisse Group, a global player in investment banking, private banking and corporate advisory, also saw its profits hurt by a previously disclosed charge of 467 million francs against the value of its own debt. Zuercher Kantonalbank’s analysts, however, said the net profit was still slightly higher than they had expected and that net new money inflows were strong while the fixed income decline wasn’t as bad as expected.

“The first-quarter result of Credit Suisse is solid, offers no surprises and is on the whole within the range of our estimates,” the Zurich cantonal bank’s analysts said in a statement. “After several disappointments in a row this should be seen as positive.”

Shares in Credit Suisse rose almost 1 percent Wednesday morning on the Swiss Exchange.

Credit Suisse played up its underlying return on equity of 18.8 percent, a gain in market share and generation of 19.1 billion francs in net new assets.

It said it was well prepared to capitalize on its improved market position going into the next quarter despite volatile currency exchange rates due to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and turmoil in the Middle East.

“We have provided further evidence that our business model generates stable, high-quality earnings,” CEO Brady Dougan said. “We also expect clients to remain active with an increased appetite for higher return assets and comprehensive advisory services.”

He had cut the profits goal for Switzerland’s second-biggest bank in February in response to tougher capital requirements.

The bank had lower losses and writedowns during the global financial crisis than its competitors, particularly UBS AG.

The share price of Credit Suisse has nevertheless sagged since 2009, to about 40 Swiss francs from 60 francs, as hopes faded that it would be able to maintain its lead over UBS.

The bank’s chief financial officer, David Mathers, said Credit Suisse had “a strong quarter overall” and was well-positioned and strongly capitalized in line with new global and Swiss regulations.

On Tuesday, UBS reported an 18 percent drop in net quarter profit, but the figure was better than expected, causing the share price to surge and adding pressure on Credit Suisse.

Those results set a “high bar for Credit Suisse, who are in a much better position, but have had a bit of a reputation for underachieving in the last four quarters,” said Chris Wheeler, an analyst at Mediobanca.

Other bank competitors in the U.S. and Britain also have reported lower profits for the first quarter.

Barclays PLC — Shares were were down nearly 5 percent after the bank reported a 5 percent drop in first quarter net profit and it sought to wind down a loss-making investment fund in the Cayman Islands. Barclays said profit fell to 1.01 billion pounds ($1.67 billion) from 1.07 billion pounds last year. Investment banking income fell 15 percent while revenue dropped 8 percent to 7.4 billion pounds, the bank said hours before its annual general meeting. However, impairment charges eased to 921 million pounds from 1.51 billion pounds a year earlier, helped by an unexpected writeback of 190 million pounds from a previous charge on the sale of its Protium investment fund in the Cayman Islands.

The company sold Protium for 7.4 billion pounds in 2009 to former Barclays executives and took an impairment charge of 532 million pounds on the deal in the fourth quarter. Barclays has now bought the fund back, intending to wind down the loan within three years.

Investors were spooked by the uncertainty over the future impact of Protium on Barclays’ earnings. In midday trading on the London Stock Exchange, Barclays shares were down 4.9 percent at 287.15 pence.

Investec Securities said it was unclear what Barclays intended to do about Protium.

“If the intention of bringing Protium back on to the balance sheet is to expedite its run off, we will be looking for confirmation that management believes it can achieve this without taking charges,” said analysts Gareth Hunt and Arun Melmane.

Analysts at Exane BNP Paribas, however, sounded more optimistic.

“The Protium transaction has now been substantially unwound … and with a shortened three-year timeframe for an orderly run-off of the underlying assets now envisaged, we have improving visibility of the group’s strategy to enhance capital efficiency, and hence a deliver a recovery in returns,” said Ian Gordon.

Barclays said it paid $270 million to acquire third-party investments in Protium, and $83 million to C12, which will continue to manage the fund.

“Acquiring control of Protium will assist the group in facilitating an early exit from the underlying Protium exposures and improving returns,” the bank said.

Chief Executive Bob Diamond said he believed the bank had “made a good start in 2011 in a challenging external environment,” and he added that the bank had boosted its Core Tier 1 capital ratio to 11 percent.

Barclays said pretax profit in retail and business banking rose by 21 percent to 692 million pounds.

Sharp Corp. — The Osaka-based manufacturer said its annual profit more than quadrupled due to brisk demand for liquid crystal display screens but warned the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last month will have a “broad” impact on its business. Sharp said its net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31 surged 341 percent to 19.4 billion yen ($237.4 million) from 4.4 billion yen the previous fiscal year. The result was below its October forecast for a 30 billion yen net profit due to supply chain damage from the March 11 disasters and costs from LCD plant improvements. Sales increased 10 percent to 3.021 trillion yen ($37 billion), with revenue from LCD displays used for game consoles, tablet computers, TVs and smartphones increasing 21 percent to 614.3 billion yen.

LCD TV sales were especially robust in China, where Sharp sold 2.18 million of the devices, up from 1.18 million a year earlier, Sharp spokesman Toshiyuki Matsumura said.

Sharp said it could not provide a specific earnings forecast for the current fiscal year through March 2012 because of uncertainties remaining after the quake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster.

“It is extremely difficult at this time to reasonably estimate the impact of the earthquake on our financial results, which will be broad across our entire business activities from production to sales,” Sharp said.

LG Electronics Inc. — The South Korean manufacturer of flat screen televisions and mobile phones reported its second straight quarterly loss, hit by investments in affiliates and falling sales, though the size of the red ink sharply narrowed amid improvement in its mobile phone and television businesses. LG lost 15.8 billion won ($14.6 million) in the three months ended March 31, compared with a net profit of 674.6 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday. The result came on the heels of a much bigger loss of 256.45 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year. Shares rose 0.5 percent to close at 105,000 won. The shares have fallen 11 percent so far this year. Sales in the first quarter, meanwhile, fell 0.4 percent to 13.2 trillion won.

LG Electronics Inc. ranks No. 2 globally in flat screen televisions behind South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co. LG trails global leader Nokia Corp. of Finland and Samsung to rank No. 3 in mobile phones.

In a statement and separate materials for investors, the maker of the Optimus brand of smartphones mainly attributed the net loss to a loss of 56 billion won from investments in affiliates flat panel maker LG Display Co. and LG Innotek, which manufactures electronic components.

LG Electronics’ mobile phone fortunes suffered last year amid intense competition in the global smartphone market and contributed to two straight quarters of operating losses.

The company, however, booked an operating profit of 131 billion won in the first quarter, which came amid cost cuts and better results for phones and televisions.

Operating profit is seen as a direct indicator of business performance before taxes, dividends, asset sales and other items that are figured into net profit or loss.

Sales in its mobile communications business, which includes phones, fell 8.3 percent to 2.91 trillion won from the year before, the company said, and the business recorded an operating loss of 101 billion won, though that was sharply lower than one of 261 billion won in the previous three months.

LG said the result “showed significant improvement in the first quarter due to an increase in smartphones in the company’s portfolio and reduction in overhead costs.”

Mobile phone handset sales fell 20 percent to 24.5 million devices in the first quarter from the fourth, LG said, citing weak seasonality, and declined 10 percent from the year before.

Looking ahead, the company said it would launch new smartphones including the LG Optimus Black and LG Optimus 3D in a bid to return to profitability in the business and that it would seek further cost reductions.

In flat screen televisions, the company said that sales rose 13 percent from the same period last year to 6.8 million sets, though revenue in its home entertainment business fell 4.8 percent to 5.3 trillion won. But in a positive sign, the company recorded an operating profit of 82 billion won in the business, which includes TVs, compared with a loss of 65 billion won in the fourth quarter.

Electrolux AB — The Swedish home appliance maker said its net profit fell by 50 percent in the first quarter due to unfavorable currency exchange rates, price pressure and increased raw-material costs. The company said net profit for the period dropped to 457 million kronor ($75 million) from 911 million kronor a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter fell by 6.7 percent to 23.4 billion kronor. Exchange rate changes negatively affected sales — measured in local currencies, sales increased by 0.9 percent. Shares in Electrolux rose by 0.1 percent to 163.30 kronor ($26.8) in early Stockholm trading.

The company said demand was “stable” in Europe and North America, but that increased raw-material costs and continued pressure on prices weighed on results.

“The prices of some of our most important raw materials continue to increase, especially plastics. We expect our costs for raw materials to increase in 2011 by about 2 billion kronor compared to the previous year,” President and CEO Keith McLoughlin said in a statement. “Our ambition is to gradually compensate for the increase in costs through price increases, improvements in product mix and cost savings.”

He said Electrolux plans to increase prices in North America in the second quarter.

The company will implement selective price hikes in Europe as well, but McLoughlin said it could take time before the increases will give effect.

“We hope to see the positive effects in the second half of 2011,” he said.

Electrolux said revenues were strong in Latin America, Asia and the Pacific and for its small appliances.

“During the first quarter of 2011, we were able to grow our business in emerging markets by close to 10 percent,” McLoughlin said. “The focus is to continue taking advantage of the organic growth in fast-growing markets and as a complement grow with profitable acquisitions.”

Electrolux said it expects market demand for appliances in Europe and North America to grow by around 2 percent and 3-5 percent respectively in 2011.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. — The Tokyo-based butomaker’s annual profit more than tripled, fueled by growth in emerging nations and the popularity of new models, but the automaker said its earnings outlook is clouded after Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. Mitsubishi said net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31 increased 228 percent to 15.6 billion yen ($191 million) from 4.7 billion yen the previous fiscal year. Mitsubishi did not provide an earnings outlook for the current fiscal year, explaining that the March 11 disasters would have a yet unknown impact on the availability of parts.Sales were up 27 percent to 1.828 trillion yen ($22.4 billion).

Mitsubishi said sales grew 18 percent to 629,000 vehicles in its market segment that includes China, Brazil and other rapidly developing economies, thanks largely to demand from first-time drivers.

Sales increased by 29 percent to 218,000 vehicles in Europe and by 7 percent to 94,000 in North America, Mitsubishi said. The company attributed that growth to the success of its RVR compact crossover.

Most Japanese automakers are making cars at far less than full capacity because of component shortages.

The company also said power interruptions remain possible due to the loss of the Fukuoka Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which was flooded during the tsunami.

LM Ericsson — The Swedish wireless equipment maker said profits more than tripled in the first quarter, driven by continued strong demand for mobile broadband. Net profit for the three-month period jumped to 4.1 billion kronor ($673 million), from 1.3 billion kronor a year earlier. The company said revenue for the period increased by 17 percent to 53 billion kronor from 45.1 billion with gross margin staying flat at 38.5 percent. Ericsson, which builds wireless networks for mobile phone operators worldwide, said the strong demand for mobile broadband resulted in five out of 10 regions showing growth year-over-year. Countries with especially strong growth were the U.S., India, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

China had continued good momentum for second-generation networks, it added.

The results beat the expectations of 23 analysts polled by SIX Estimates, who had forecast sales of 48.5 billion kronor and a gross margin of 37.4 percent.

With more than 90,000 employees worldwide, Ericsson is the industry leader but is facing competition from Nokia Siemens and China’s Huawei in the networks industry.

Ericsson gets a smaller share of its income from its Sony Ericsson joint mobile phone venture — which last week reported a 48 percent drop in net profit to €11 million ($15.8 million) for the first quarter, down from €21 million a year ago.

Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg said the company continued to gain market share in third-generation mobile equipment in 2010 and “at least maintained” its share of more than 50 percent in fourth-generation equipment.

“Group sales in the quarter increased by 17 percent year-over-year driven by continued strong demand for mobile broadband and especially for the multi-standard radio base station RBS 6000,” Vestberg said.

The company said sales in the first quarter were not impacted by the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, but said its supply chain of components is partly dependent on Japan which could result in delivery delays going forward.

“We have taken a number of actions to mitigate the effects to secure that we limit the impact on our customers,” Vestberg said. “Our best estimate is that we will be able to deliver the majority of these volumes before end of third quarter 2011.”

Royal DSM NV — The Netherlands-based company, the biggest maker of nutritional supplements, says first quarter earnings grew 28 percent on healthy demand, rising margins and lower taxes. Net profit was 161 million euros ($236 million), up from 130 million euros, and sales rose 16 percent to 2.23 billion euros. The company said it was able to increase prices and margins, more than offsetting higher raw materials costs. DSM is originally a chemicals company, and also makes high-performance materials used in products such as bulletproof vests and fiber-optic wire casings, and polymers used in nylon, synthetic rubbers and plastics. The company said demand was strong in emerging markets, and modest in Western economies. Its tax rate fell to 21 percent from 25 percent by “the application of preferential tax regimes.”

Shiseido Co. Ltd. — Japan’s top cosmetics maker said its quarterly profit plunged 62 percent due to tumbling domestic sales following last month’s earthquake and tsunami. Shiseido said its January-March net profit shrank to 3.8 billion yen ($46.5 million) from 10 billion yen a year earlier. Revenue edged up 2.3 percent year-on-year to 183.7 billion yen.

The company said sales in Japan took a beating due to sluggish demand following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

In the current fiscal year to March 2012, Shiseido forecasts its net profit will jump by 64.2 percent to 21 billion yen on revenue rising 1.4 percent to 680 billion yen.

Wipro — India’s No. 3 outsourcer forecast tepid growth and margin pressure from wage hikes despite a 14 percent rise in quarterly profit. The numbers beat expectations but the dour forecast sent the stock tumbling 2.9 percent on the Bombay Stock Exchange Wednesday. Net profit for the March quarter was 13.8 billion rupees ($309 million) under international accounting standards. Revenues were 83.0 billion rupees ($1.9 billion), up 18 percent from a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast profit of 13.6 billion rupees on revenues of 81.3 billion rupees. Wipro said revenues from its mainstay information technology services business would be $1.39 billion to $1.42 billion this quarter, compared with $1.40 billion last quarter. At best that represents a 1.4 percent uptick in revenue, slower than the 4.2 percent growth in the January to March quarter. Chairman Azim Premji said demand this fiscal year looks stable and discretionary spending by the company’s global clients has picked up.

He said Wipro is working to reorganize itself to better deal with volatile economic challenges.

“We have made several organizational changes this quarter with the clear objective of trying to simplify the organization and making us much leaner and faster on our feet,” Premji said.

As part of its restructuring, the company has reorganized its global sales teams and is focusing investment on high-growth areas like financial services, health care and energy, and growing markets like India, Asia, Australia and Latin America, Premji said.

Kotak Securities analyst Dipen Shah said the muted forecast likely reflected company restructuring, rather than softening demand. “They are restructuring the overall business to get more focus on higher growth areas,” he said. “That will probably drive growth down the line.”

In February, the company said it would reorganize its core IT services business and reshuffle middle management. That same month, T.K. Kurien took over as chief executive of the key information technology business, after joint CEOs Girish Paranjpe and Suresh Vaswani stepped down.

Shah said wage hikes in India’s $60 billion software services export sector are higher than anticipated, indicating that the war for talent is not over in Asia’s third-largest economy.

Wipro’s planned wage hike of 12 to 15 percent for India employees is higher than rivals Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, which said they would raise salaries by 10 to 12 percent and 12 to 14 percent respectively.

“The war for talent is becoming intense,” Shah said. Rising billing rates could help offset the impact of higher staff costs, he said.

Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. — One of China’s four major state-owned lenders said its profit in the first quarter of the year rose 36.4 percent, helped by higher interest and fee income. The Beijing-based bank said its profit rose to 34.07 billion yuan ($5.2 billion) in January-March from 25 billion yuan a year earlier. Interest income rose 32 percent over the same period a year earlier to 70.5 billion yuan ($10.8 billion) while fees and other income surged 63 percent to 17.7 billion yuan ($2.7 billion).

The bank, China’s biggest rural lender, raised $22.1 billion in an initial public offering in July in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Like other Chinese banks, it has thrived in the economic rebound that followed the 2008 global financial crisis and surging interest income from higher lending associated with government stimulus policies.

The bank said its total assets rose 6 percent in the first quarter, to 10.96 trillion yuan ($1.7 trillion) as of March 31.

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