Palm investors indifferent on earnings

Palm Inc.’s stock remained relatively unchanged after the Treo maker reported revenues of $392.9 million in its second quarter, results due in large part to the company’s sale of 617,000 Treo smart phones during the period.
“We are pleased to report strong Treo sell-through this quarter, which is one of the most important metrics. More customers throughout the world bought Treo smartphones than ever before,” said Ed Colligan, Palm’s CEO. “In addition, we accomplished a number of strategic objectives during the quarter: shipping two new Treo models to expand both geographically and demographically, securing perpetual rights to the Palm OS source code, and diversifying our manufacturing partners to strengthen our cost position and our product pipeline.”
Palm last month lowered its second-quarter expectations due to what the company said was a delay in the release of its Treo 750 phone by a U.S. carrier. Palm did not name the carrier.
In the second quarter, Palm reported net income of $12.8 million. The company’s year-ago net income was around $34.6 million.
Although Palm’s stock was relatively unchanged after the news, at about $13.63 per share, analyst firm Needham & Co. downgraded its opinion on Palm’s share from “buy” to “hold.”