Earning Plays

[3xBuBu]

Friday, April 3
Natus Medical warns on profit, citing order delays(6:19 am ET)
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Medical equipment maker Natus Medical Inc. (BABY: news, chart, profile) warned on first-quarter profit and sales, citing delays from hospital spending on capital equipment. "We have been working on several large capital equipment orders that were expected to ship in the first quarter. While these orders were not placed, we believe that they have been pushed out to later in the year and not lost. The exact timing of these orders, however, remains uncertain," said CEO Jim Hawkins. It expects first-quarter earnings between 1 and 2 cents a share on sales between $32.5 million and $33.5 million. It previously forecast earnings between 6 and 8 cents a share on sales between $37 million and $38 million.
RBS would have made profit without ABN, will cut more jobs(2:38 am ET)
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Royal Bank of Scotland (UK:RBS: news, chart, profile) (RBS: news, chart, profile) Chairman Philip Hampton said Friday that the bank will cut more jobs this year, but it doesn't yet know how many positions will go. In an extract from a speech published ahead of the bank's annual meeting, Hampton said the acquisition of parts of ABN Amro was the key decision that led to RBS' problems and that the bank would have made an operating profit before goodwill impairments if it wasn't for the acquisition. Hampton also reaffirmed that the bank is taking legal advice over whether the pension deal given to former CEO Fred Goodwin can be altered, but said it's not in the best interests of the bank for the debate to go on and on. Hampton added that current CEO Stephen Hester, at his own insistence, has a clause in his contract ensuring he will receive no reward if he leaves the company "for reasons of failure."
Thursday, April 2
Research In Motion earnings jump in fourth quarter(4:15 pm ET)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Research In Motion Ltd. said Thursday afternoon that earnings jumped nearly 26% in the fourth fiscal quarter on strong sales of the company's BlackBerry line of smartphones. For the quarter ended Feb. 28, RIM (RIMM: news, chart, profile) said earnings came in at $518.3 million, or 90 cents a share, compared to earnings of $412.5 million, or 72 cents a share, for the same period last year. Revenue rose 25% to $3.46 billion for the quarter. Analysts were expecting earnings of 84 cents a share on revenue of $3.41 billion, according to consensus estimates from FactSet Research.