DOLE REAPS PROFITS WITH BANANA BOOM.Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer WESTLAKE VILLAGE - The fruit business is looking nice and fresh for Dole, as the huge grower reported revenues of $1.23 billion for the second quarter Thursday. Though sales dropped slightly from $1.24 billion in 2000, Dole has been performing well, driven by strong banana and pineapple pineapple, common name for one member of and for the Bromeliaceae, a family of chiefly epiphytic herbs and small shrubs native to the American tropics and subtropics. prices and cost-cutting measures. It earned $36.9 million in the quarter, down from $45 million the year before, though analysts point to the extremely volatile nature of the industry as a sign that things are going smoothly. Its investors earned 66 cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. , matching Wall Street expectations, down from 81 cents a year ago. And Dole is definitely going bananas ba·nan·as adj. Slang Crazy: "That's the horrible thing when you're bananas over its bananas, so to speak. ``Prices firmed up in the second quarter,'' said Larry Kern Kern, river, 155 mi (249 km) long, rising in the S Sierra Nevada Mts., E Calif., and flowing south, then southwest to a reservoir in the extreme southern part of the San Joaquin valley. The river has Isabella Dam as its chief facility. , president and chief operating officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. . ``I wouldn't say they're sustainable but we're reconfiguring our business models to deal with altered pricing.'' This companywide reconfiguring led Dole to shut down several California operations in March and fueled the sale of 5,000 acres of land in the Central Valley. It also announced in its Thursday earnings call that it expects to complete the sale of its underperforming Honduran beverage operation within the next quarter. If the fruit and vegetable business remains strong, this plan could serve Dole well, analyst Steve Denault of US Bancorp Piper Jaffray Piper Jaffray & Co. (NYSE: PJC), often shortened to just Piper Jaffray or PiperJaffray, is a U.S. middle-market investment banking firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is a focused on delivering financial advice, investment products and transaction execution said. ``The industry fundamentals are quite better than they have been in quite some time,'' he said. ``Once Dole gets through their strategic review and takes the necessary steps, they'll be in a great position to benefit.'' |
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