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Last updated: Friday, May 1, 2009

Motorola Inc. defeated low expectations Thursday, posting a smaller first-quarter loss than Wall Street had expected and regaining its position as the world’s fourth-largest maker of cell phones. Investors were largely unimpressed, and analysts pointed to deterioration in the Motorola units that have been propping up the dismally performing cell phone operations. “There’s no turnaround yet. This is basically treading water more efficiently than they have in the past,” said analyst Ed Snyder at Charter Equity Research. The Schaumburg, Illinois-based company reported a loss of $231 million, or 13 cents per share, for the first three months of the year. That’s wider than the loss of $194 million, or 9 cents per share, for the same quarter last year. The loss for the latest quarter included charges of 5 cents per share. Excluding that, Motorola’s loss from continuing operations was 8 cents per share. On average, analysts expected a loss of 11 cents per share, excluding items, according to Thomson Reuters. Motorola’s sales were $5.4 billion, down 28 percent from a year ago. Analysts were expecting sales of $5.6 billion. Motorola shares fell 17 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $5.79 in morning trading. The stock had been on a tear since early March, rising 71 percent. Motorola sold 14.7 million handsets in the quarter. That’s just over half of what it sold a year ago, but it beat Sony Ericsson’s sales in a difficult quarter. Nokia Corp., LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. still sell more phones. The company said it was helped by demand for prepaid service in the U.S. Sprint Nextel Corp. launched a $50 unlimited-calling prepaid plan in January under its Boost brand, for which Motorola is the sole phone supplier. Motorola also said it increased its annual savings target by $200 million to $1.7 billion, most of which is coming from expense cuts in the…

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Motorola Loss Widens; Analysts See Worrisome Signs

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