Alcatel-Lucent Announces Strong Q4 Results (ALU)
Alcatel Lucent (NYSE: ALU) announced robust forecast for the current year. The company stock reacted positively to the news. The company shares are currently trading at $4.38, up 23.03 percent from its previous close. The company set its operating margin target at 5 percent for the year 2011. The newly announced target is at the lower end of the margin announced earlier.
The company announced 5.5 percent increase in its full year revenue. The company’s annual revenue stood at $21.90 billion. Its adjusted operating income for the year came at 288 million euro. The company is likely to report its full year revenue at 15.74 billion euro. Ben Verwaayen, chief executive officer of the company said, “We had the best profits this quarter since the merger and it’s a clear indication that we are on our way to becoming a normal company going into 2011.”
The company reported 22 percent growth in its revenue for the quarter. The increase mainly came from North American markets. The company’s adjusted operating margin for the quarter stood at 8.1 percent of sales. However, the company could not improve its cash flows. Paul Tufano, chief financial officer of the company, said, “We increased our inventory dramatically as we suffered from component shortages. But we plan to keep reducing inventory this year, and still aim for positive free cash flow in 2011.”
Alcatel Lucent stock opened at $4.18 and touched the high of $4.39, which is also its 52 weeks high. The stock’s lowest price in today’s session is $4.16. The company stock’s beta is 2.38. The company stock has traded in the range of $2.25 and $4.39 during the past 52 weeks. The company’s market cap is $9.88 billion.
Alcatel Lucent reported its total current assets at $17.51 billion for the year ending Dec 31, 2009. Its total assets were worth $34.216 billion for the same time period. Alcatel Lucent had valued its total liabilities at $28.034 billion. The company had reported its revenue at $21.747 billion and its gross profit for the year at $7.333 billion. Alcatel Lucent’s net income for the year stood at ($723) million.
