Profit Margins

Crown Central Petroleum Corp. said yesterday that because intense competition eroded its profit margins on gasoline wholesaling, it lost $10.5 million in the last quarter of 1994.That compared with a $6.9 million profit in the year-ago quarter.As a result, the Baltimore-based oil refiner and marketer reported its fourth consecutive annual loss, finishing 1994 $35.4 million in the red -- more than eight times as much as the $4.3 million it lost in the prior year.The biggest chunk of the annual loss came last fall, when the company reported its worst quarterly performance in 10 years.

Despite falling profit margins in its industrial business and a drop in Mexican sales, McCormick & Co. Inc. boosted profits by 8.5 percent in its fiscal third quarter with increased retail sales in the United States and Europe."

They strive so hard for good taste, these Globe guys.Upstairs, six Remington statues, a fake Rembrandt and assorted paintings line a hallway of hand-painted Chinese wallpaper and matching plush teal carpeting.Downstairs, 20 reporters, who normally dish La Liz, Michael Jackson and the Kennedys, are digging for dirt on Nicole Brown Simpson's trophy-wife life, sordid death and the No. 1 murder suspect: her ex-husband, football legend O. J. Simpson. By the time Mr. Simpson takes Los Angeles cops on a slow-speed chase to nowhere, the whole country is obsessed.

NEW YORK -- International Business Machines Corp. Chairman Louis V. Gerstner Jr. told security analysts yesterday he won't bet the company "on any one technology or any one gizmo."He did promise to do a better job making the company a more profitable computer maker. To do that, Mr. Gerstner said, he will use the company's vast assets more effectively, license more of its technologies -- from chips to software -- than ever before and try to make its wide array of products more compatible.Licensing, as well as undertaking to make more computers and other systems for other companies, will also help fund "the very large costs of research and development" IBM needs to stay competitive, Mr. Gerstner said.

The Kmart Corp. decided to clean house in the fourth quarter, writing off losses on two specialty store chains it sold and taking a big charge for renovations and other improvements in an effort to make its core discount-store business competitive.As a result, it reported a loss yesterday of $1.19 billion, or $2.61 a share.But analysts said that even without the string of one-time charges, Kmart's fourth-quarter results were disappointing. The retailer's sales growth was good but failed to translate into tTC better earnings, in part because of heavier than expected markdowns.

Bolstered by a 26 percent gain in orders for homes to be delivered early this year, Ryland Group Inc. of Columbia said its fourth-quarter profits rose 10 percent.But the news caused a muted reaction on Wall Street, where the stock backed off from a 52-week high reached Wednesday after a Salomon Inc. analyst recommended the stock of the nation's third-biggest homebuilder.Ryland shares closed at $24.625, down 62.5 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.Ryland said it earned $7.6 million, or 45 cents a share, during the three months that closed 1993.

PETER G. ANGELOSAge: 63Residence: BaltimoreOccupation: Attorney.Why he's involved: He's a keen supporter of local ownership, and began thinking seriously about buying the Orioles when Eli S. Jacobs' financial problems became public last year. Early partners in the bid were novelist Tom Clancy and local contractor Henry J. Knott Sr.Baseball goals: "In any given year, you can't set out and say you're going to win the championship. You've got to be realistic. But winning that title is always the goal."

It is a classic corporate marriage, born of desperation and opportunity.Preston Corp., the well-respected yet struggling trucking company situated in the cornfields of the Eastern Shore, weds Yellow Freight System Inc. of Delaware, a well-heeled industry giant that needs to become even mightier."

ATLANTA -- Bob Simmons summed up the predominant mind-set of his fellow homebuilders, when they met here in the wake of the worst construction year in more than a decade."