Local earnings

Several companies, including some with Utah ties, reported quarterly financial results Monday.

Cephalon

Cephalon Inc. had a fourth-quarter loss as costs rose, overshadowing the 38 percent sales increase of its leading product, the sleep disorder drug Provigil. The company reported a profit for 2006 after two years of losses.

The fourth-quarter net loss was $4.91 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with net income of $18.1 million, or 30 cents, a year earlier, said Cephalon, based in Frazer, Pa., in a statement. That missed the 78-cent profit expected on average by 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Cephalon, which makes several products in Salt Lake City, is seeking U.S. regulatory approval to broaden usage of Fentora beyond treating severe, uncontrolled pain in cancer patients, to reduce other kinds of pain. In September the company released Fentora, a tablet that dissolves in the mouth and has the same key ingredient as its fentanyl-laced lollipop, Actiq.

Cephalon forecast first-quarter 2007 sales of $400 million to $410 million and earnings, excluding some items, of 90 cents to $1 a share. For 2006, Cephalon reported net income of $144.8 million, or $2.08 a share, compared with a loss of $175 million, or $3.01, a year earlier.

Fourth-quarter revenue jumped 44 percent to $484.7 million from $336.4 million. Provigil sales rose 38 percent to $204.7 million. Sales of the pain pill Fentora were $29.3 million. The company began marketing the drug in the third quarter of 2006.

Cephalon released results after U.S. markets closed. In after-hours trading the shares rose 68 cents to $73.13. They earlier gained 25 cents to close at $72.45 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Holly

Dallas-based Holly Corp. reported company-record fourth-quarter net income of $47.7 million, or 84 cents per share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31. That compares with $39.9 million, or 65 cents per share, for the same quarter in 2005.

Sales and other revenues totaled $938 million, up from $812.4 million a year earlier.

For the full year 2006, the company reported a record level of net income of $266.6 million, or $4.58 per share. That compares with the prior record of net income of $167.7 million, or $2.65 per share, in 2005.

Sales and other revenues totaled $4 billion, up from $3 billion in 2005.