Unisys posts 3Q profit partly on lower expenses

Unisys moves to 3rd-quarter profit on lower expenses, better mix of enterprise servers

• On 9:15 am EDT, Wednesday October 28, 2009

BLUE BELL, Pa. (AP) -- Unisys Corp. said Wednesday that it moved to a profit in the third quarter as the information technology company lowered expenses and improved its assortment of high-end enterprise servers.

Unisys earned $61.1 million, or $1.48 per share, compared with a loss of $34.7 million, or 96 cents per share, a year earlier.

Unisys, which said its results account for a reverse stock split, also cut its expenses to $1.04 billion from $1.27 billion.

Gross margin improved to 26.4 percent from 22.2 percent on better cost control efforts and a stronger server mix.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, revenue fell 12 percent to $1.16 billion from $1.31 billion partly on the stronger dollar. Foreign exchange rates hurt revenue by about 5 percent in the quarter. A strong dollar dampens foreign sales for U.S. companies, because overseas sales convert back to fewer U.S. dollars.

Unisys shares rose $1.18, or 4.9 percent, to $25.25 in premarket trading.