Earnings

By last week, corporate reports for 1930 were sufficiently plentiful to give a fairly comprehensive idea of what kind of year 1930 really was. Most results were below previous estimates because of a shockingly bad fourth quarter. Railroads, as expected, suffered heavily. The first 67 roads to report had a net operating income in December of $39,591,000 against $56,709,000 in December 1929--a drop of 30.1%. With an increase in net income of 11.5% for the year Bangor & Aroostock ("The Potato Road") stood alone. Utilities in general showed the effects of depression. Great Commonwealth & Southern Corp. covered its dividend by a margin of only .4-c- a share.

Most interesting to investors were the reports of leading industrials. A decline of 24.7% was shown in the first 102 reports. By far the most important was the statement of United States Steel Corp. For 1930 "Big Steel" earned $104,465,774 against $197,531,349 in 1929. Common share earnings were $9.12 against $21.19. Especially poor was the fourth quarter with earnings of $12,366,088 against $39,972,358, which after preferred dividends came to 70-c- a share against $5.37. As it stands, the fourth quarter earnings include $3,695,000 special income, so that actual earnings from operations were only 28-c- against dividend requirements of $1.75.

Other representative reports included: 1929 1930

000s omitted

Adams Express (Investment Trust) .... 1,296 3,312

American Chicle .... 2,107 2,210

Atlantic Refining Co .... 17,332 2,742

Atlas Powder .... 2,542 1,246

Bethlehem Steel .... 42,242 23,843

Bohn Aluminum & Brass .... 2,619 724

Budd Wheel .... 1,791 1,456

Childs .... 1,277 1,187

Cities Service .... 36,477* 48,975*

Cluett, Peabody & Co. . . . 663 798

Colgate-Palmolive-Peet . . . . 8,910 8,550

Commercial Investment Trust

(instalment financing) .... 9,132 8,318

Deere & Co. (farm

equipment) .... 15,181/- 8,999/-

E. I. du Pont de Nemours .... 72,300 49,990

General Cigar.... 4,295 3,201

General Fireproofing .... 1,087 752

General Outdoor

Advertising .... 1,843 345

General Railway Signal .... 2,984 2,432

German General Electric . . . . 4,564 3,388

Gulf States Steel .... 1,310 815D

Hart, Schaffner & Marx .... 2,514** 504**

Hawaiian Pineapple .... 3,166 2,531

Helena Rubinstein

(beauty) .... 794 554

Household Finance .... 3,372 4,066

Inland Steel .... 11,712 6,498

International Cement .... 4,950 4,527

Johnson Motor (outboard). 346 37

Jones & Laughlin Steel .... 20,848 9,093

Kelvinator .... 1,220 1,601

S. S. Kresge .... 14,952 10,621

Krupp (Germany) .... 1,640 1,060D

Lima Locomotive .... 934 1,829

Montgomery Ward .... 13,434 423

Petroleum Corp .... 3,752 4,923

Pratt & Lambert .... 1,251 616

Savage Arms .... 727 339

Sears, Roebuck .... 30,057 14,308

Siemens & Halske

(Germany) .... 4,456 3,905

Stewart-Warner .... 6,838 1,262

Woolworth .... 35,664 34,736

D=deficit

*Before Reserves. /-Year ending Oct. 31. ** Year ended Nov. 29.

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