Viacom’s Full-Year Profit More Than Doubles

Viacom, owner of the MTV cable network, Paramount Pictures and Simon & Schuster books, on Wednesday posted a small profit for the fourth quarter and full-year earnings that more than doubled from 1994.

Viacom’s fourth-quarter earnings contrast with a loss of $50.2 million in the year-earlier period. The results were before payment of a required $15-million preferred stock dividend in each quarter.

After the dividend, Viacom had a loss attributable to common stock of $10.5 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with a loss of $65.2 million, or 18 cents a share, a year ago.

However, the media-entertainment company cautioned against drawing conclusions from the comparisons, because its 1995 results reflect full-year contributions from companies it owned for only part of 1994.

For the full year, Viacom earned $222.5 million, or 43 cents a share after preferred dividends, compared with $89.6 million, or 7 cents, a year earlier. Revenue jumped to $11.7 billion from $7.4 billion.

“We delivered on our promises for the year, generating significant and sustainable cash flow growth across all of our business segments,” Chairman and Chief Executive Sumner Redstone said.

Redstone, who is Viacom’s biggest shareholder, took on the CEO title last month when he forced out longtime Chief Executive Frank Biondi Jr.

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Fruit of the Loom reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss amid a reduction in inventory of its underwear and casual-wear products.

The Chicago-based company reported a loss from operations of $20.6 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with a loss of $43.7 million, or 58 cents, in the year-ago period.

Charges of $287.4 million, or $3.78 a share, for restructuring and the write-down of goodwill related to the acquisition of its Gitano casual-wear and Salem licensed sportswear businesses resulted in a final loss for the most recent quarter of $308.0 million, or $4.05.

The charges were greater than the $240 million to $260 million estimated by the company in December. And the per-share loss, before charges, was wider than Wall Street estimates of 16 cents.

At a Glance:

Orem, Utah-based Novell earned $64 million, or 17 cents a share, in its fiscal first quarter, a 22% drop from a year ago. It blamed a restructuring charge and lower revenue. . . . Nordstrom said fiscal fourth-quarter net income fell 23% to $54.1 million, or 67 cents a share, down from $69.9 million, or 85 cents, in the year-earlier quarter.