Earnings roundup

Comcast Corp.

Comcast Corp., the nation's biggest cable TV systems operator, said Thursday that its third-quarter profit fell 54 percent and new customer additions slowed amid increasing competition from phone and satellite TV companies.

The earnings report sent Comcast shares down over 10 percent in afternoon trading.

Comcast earned $560 million, or 18 cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30 compared with $1.22 billion, or 38 cents, in the same quarter a year ago.

The decline also reflected a comparison with year-ago results that included $669 million in one-time gains related to Comcast's purchase of Adelphia's cable assets and a swap of cable systems with Time Warner Cable Inc. Excluding these gains, Comcast would have seen profits rise by 2 percent from last year's $548 million in adjusted earnings.

Revenue rose by 21 percent to $7.78 billion from $6.43 billion a year ago.

Merit Medical Systems

Merit Medical Systems Inc., based in South Jordan, reported net income of $4.3 million, or 15 cents per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30. That compares with $3.3 million, or 12 cents per share, for the same quarter last year.

Revenues totaled $50.6 million, up from $46.7 million in the 2006 third quarter.

Merit Medical develops, manufactures and distributes disposable medical devices. The company employs approximately 1,520 people worldwide, with facilities in Salt Lake City and South Jordan,; Santa Clara, Calif.; Angleton, Texas; Richmond, Va.; The Netherlands and Ireland.

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. on Thursday reported a sharply higher third-quarter profit that bested Wall Street expectations, and the maker of scientific instruments raised financial expectations for the full year.

The company, which more than doubled in size after the former Thermo Electron acquired Fisher Scientific last November, reported net income for the July-September period of $218.5 million, or 49 cents per share.

The profit was more than four times last year's third-quarter net income of $48.8 million, or 30 cents per share, when Thermo Electron was a standalone company.

Revenue also more than tripled from a year ago, from to $724.9 million to $2.40 billion.

Comcast Corp.