Sales Up, Profits Down

With monotonous similarity, one big company after another last week reported first-quarter earnings: sales up, profits down. The figures were a measure of the deep inroads of higher taxes and costs. Samples:

Electrical. Westinghouse, with an 11.5% gain in sales, found its net profit down from $16.7 million in 1951's first quarter to $15.5 million. General Electric, whose sales fell by $9,000,000, had its net clipped from $35 million to $29 million.

Chemicals. Union Carbide & Carbon's sales rose $6,000,000, but its net fell 20% (to $23 million). Du Pont's sales were up $2,000,000 and the net was "substantially" off. Said President Crawford H. Greenewalt: "The seller's market . . . is ... a thing of the past. .. The slump in textiles affects Du Pont most seriously."

Textiles. American Woolen, despite a 16% rise in sales, was hard-hit by the slump. It did not report its actual losses, merely put them at $895,000 after tax carrybacks, v. a profit in the 1951 quarter of $1.1 million.

Aircraft. Consolidated Vultee's sales were up from $61 million to $87 million, its profits off from $1.7 million to $1.5 million. However, Douglas, with a 106% increase in sales, was able to boost its net also, from $1.7 million to $2.000,000.

Metals. Phelps Dodge, second biggest domestic copper producer, saw its net fall from $12.7 million to $9.2 million; Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical went from $4,000,000 to $3,000,000.

The trend was unmistakable, and the stock market took due note of it. With the Dow-Jones industrial average off 6 points, the watchword in Wall Street last week was "Caution."

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