Rockwell Profit Rises 18% at Remaining Operations

Rockwell International Corp., freshly shorn of the aerospace and defense businesses that once defined the company, said Monday that profit from its remaining electronics and automotive businesses rose 18% in its fiscal first quarter.

Rockwell said each of its four operating units reported increases, pushing profit to $179 million, or 82 cents a share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, up from $152 million, or 70 cents a share, for the same units a year earlier. The results were slightly ahead of analysts’ estimates.

Rockwell’s graphics, aerospace and defense businesses, all since sold, added $40 million to the same quarter a year ago, for a total of $192 million, or 89 cents a share.

First-quarter revenue from Rockwell’s automation, semiconductor, automotive and avionics and communications divisions rose 8%, to $2.6 billion from $2.4 billion a year earlier.

Shares of Rockwell rose $1 to close at $63 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company, convinced in an era of declining federal defense spending that its future lay in international commercial electronics, sold its aerospace and defense businesses early last month to Boeing Co. for $3.2 billion.

Donald R. Beall, the company’s chairman and architect of its transformation, said the first-quarter results show that Rockwell has become “the type of company we’ve talked about becoming for many years, one that is much more focused on commercial electronics and international trade.”

About 43% of Rockwell’s business now comes from international trade.

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Lexington, Mass.-based Raytheon Co., which has committed $12 billion to buy the defense operations of General Motors Corp.’s Hughes division and Texas Instruments Inc., blamed its earnings decline on financing problems encountered by its engineering division and increased competition for its Amana appliance division.

Raytheon’s fourth-quarter net income fell to $177.4 million, or 75 cents a share, from profit from operations of $217.1 million, or 90 cents, in 1995’s fourth quarter.

Raytheon had been expected to earn 75 cents a share, according to analysts’ estimates.

Separately, Raytheon said it will delay spinning off its engineering and construction unit because of the acquisition of Hughes.

At a Glance:

PaineWebber Group Inc. reported a 56% fourth-quarter profit gain, earning $91.5 million, or 91 cents a share, from $58.8 million, or 52 cents, a year earlier. . . . Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette reported profit of $73.1 million, or $1.15 per share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $57.6 million, or 93 cents, a year ago.

Qualcomm Inc. said first-quarter earnings fell less than expected, to $9.13 million, or 13 cents a share, from $10.1 million, or 15 cents, a year earlier, beating analysts’ average estimate of 11 cents.

Times Wire Services contributed to this report.