Unisys said this afternoon that its fourth-quarter earnings rose from a year earlier as revenue from technology services for corporate customers increased and the weak dollar helped sales.
But the company said its new orders for large managed services contracts declined during the fourth quarter, pushing overall new services orders down.
Unisys said net income rose to $111.5 million, or 33 cents per share, including a 1 cent per share tax credit, from $89.1 million, or 27 cents per share, a year earlier. It said revenue increased to $1.64 billion from $1.55 billion.
The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based company said that it expects mid single-digit percentage growth in 2004 revenue and expects earnings, excluding costs associated with its pension fund, of 83 cents per share to 87 cents per share.
It sees single-digit percentage growth in revenue in the first quarter and earnings per share of 11 cents to 13 cents before pension accounting costs.
It said the costs associated with its pension fund will be about $85 million in 2004, compared with income from the fund of $23 million in 2003.