Commodore International Ltd., of Westchester, Pa., Monday announced its first profitable quarter in a year and a half, along with a 58 percent jump in revenues for the period ended June 30.
The company reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.2 million, or 4 cents a share, up from a fourth-quarter loss of $124 million in 1985. Revenues jumped to $208.6 million from $131.9 million.
However, the one-time king of the home computer market still suffered a $127.9 million loss for the fiscal year ended June 30, in contrast to a loss of $113.9 million a year earlier. Sales were virtually flat from year to year, rising only slightly to $889.3 million from $883.1 million.
Though most analysts are still regarding the company cautiously, one called the return to profitability encouraging. Commodore`s stock rose 62 cents a share to $7 on Wall Street Monday.
But Commodore said it is still going to receive a qualified opinion from its auditors for fiscal year 1986.
”That`s to be predicted. We won`t get rid of that language until we`ve had two or three solid quarters, after suffering $240 million in losses in two years,” said President and Chief Executive Thomas Rattigan in a telephone interview. ”We would hope that the qualifications will be a little softer than last year.”
Commodore is still conducting ”ongoing conversations” with its lenders about restructuring its long-term debt, according to Rattigan.
”We`ve got a lot to crow about, but making a little more than a million dollars on $209 million in sales isn`t all that hot. We`ve climbed up one level, but we have another step to go,” he said.
Rattigan attributed the break-even quarter after six consecutive losing quarters to the company`s stringent cost cutting and improving new product sales.
Rattigan admitted that the venerable C64, which sells for under $200 to the home market, is still the company`s biggest selling product in unit numbers. He declined to say which product has the largest dollar sales.
”If you look at unit sales on computers, and revenue numbers, you can see we traded up in product mix,” he said, pointing to a 74 percent increase in unit sales and 128 percent in dollar sales.
He described the sales of Commodore`s Amiga computer as representing a
”larger percentage of our mix in dollars compared to last year`s fourth quarter.”
