Earnings & Sales Reports, Quarterly Earnings | featured news

Verizon's third-quarter profit more than doubled as the telecommunications giant reported improved margins and wireless-subscriber growth.

Apple Inc stunned Wall Street by reporting results that missed expectations for the first time in years, blaming rumors of the new iPhone for hurting demand in the September quarter.

itigroup's strategy of slimming down and focusing on a few core businesses is paying off. The New York bank reported third quarter earnings rose 74 percent in the third quarter, to $3.8 billion, due to lower losses from loans and an accounting gain. Its international consumer lending business grew in Asia and Latin America. The bank also decided to keep its credit card partnership with retailers as that business improved.

Merck & Co. posts an 90 percent drop in third-quarter profit, due to large charges for its $41.1 billion acquisition of Schering-Plough Corp.

Ford Motor Co. is on a roll. Its popular new cars and trucks are grabbing a bigger share of the U.S. market. It's about to erase a big portion of its health care debts. And Ford is adding a significant number of jobs for the first time in years.

Best Buy's earnings jumped 61% as the retailer rebounded from a weakened year-earlier quarter on higher revenue and margins.

The online media company shows flat revenue and sees little growth ahead. Ouch. Yahoo! reported net income for the quarter ended June 30 of $213 million, or 15 cents per share, a 51% increase over the year ago quarter and beating Street’s consensus. Analysts’ consensus leading up to the quarterly earnings report had the online media company coming in at 14 cents per share on revenue of $1.6 billion. Though beating the predictions, Yahoo! failed to deliver impressive growth on revenue; posting the expected $1.6 billion this quarter, up 2% from the same period last year.