DOLE EXPECTS LOSS IN QUARTER; BANANA PRICES SLIP IN EUROPE.Byline: Andy Peters Bloomberg News Dole Food Co., the world's largest producer of fresh fruit, may report a loss in the third quarter because of falling banana prices in Europe. Dole Chairman David Murdock said the best the company's continuing operations continuing operations Parts of a business that are expected to be maintained as an ongoing segment of an overall business operation. Income and losses from continuing operations are reported separately if any segments have been discontinued during the would do in the quarter is break even. The company was expected to earn 13 cents a share, the average estimate of four analysts polled by First Call Corp. In the year-ago period, Dole earned 26 cents. This is the third time in five months that Dole warned profits would be hurt because the European Union's increase in the number of banana-import licenses caused a surplus and lowered prices. The EU granted more licenses after the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. imposed trade sanctions Trade sanctions are trade penalties imposed by one or more countries on one or more other countries. Typically the sanctions take the form of import tariffs (duties), licensing schemes or other administrative hurdles. because of import rules that favored bananas grown by former European colonies This is a list of former European colonies. North America France
``Pricing in Europe has been horrible,'' said analyst Timothy Ramey of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. ``The company has been saying forget 1999, let's position ourselves to return to profitability in 2000,'' he said, rating Dole a hold. Murdock also cited costs associated with the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch was one of the deadliest and most powerful hurricanes on record in the Atlantic basin, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph (290 km/h). The storm was the thirteenth tropical storm, ninth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic , which destroyed about 10 percent of the world's banana supply, the citrus freeze in California and prices lower than expected for flowers, which Dole also grows. Shares of the Westlake Village-based company fell $2.75 to $21.25. Shares earlier fell to a 52-week low of $21. The stock has dropped 33 percent in the past year, worse than the 6 percent decline in the Standard & Poor's Midcap Food & Beverages index. Company officials didn't immediately return calls for further comment. Analysts' earnings estimates for Dole have dropped from an average 39 cents a share since July 15, when the company first warned about the third quarter, First Call said. Estimates range from a loss of 3 cents to a profit of 15 cents after Monday's warning, First Call said. Analyst Donald Zwyer of Salomon Smith Barney Smith Barney is a division of Citigroup Global Capital Markets Inc., a global, full-service financial firm, that provides brokerage, investment banking and asset management services to corporations, governments and individuals around the world. lowered his third-quarter estimate to a loss of 3 cents from an 11-cent profit and dropped his fourth-quarter estimate to 25 cents from 26 cents. He rates Dole a neutral. ``It's going to take several quarters for Dole to turn this around,'' said analyst Sean Egan Sean Egan is the project leader of Pidgin, a popular instant messaging client. He is also a software engineer at Google, where he has worked on Google Talk. Biography of Egan-Jones Rating Co. |
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