Quarter

Mercantile Bankshares Corp., in probably its last quarterly earnings report, said yesterday that fourth-quarter profit fell 2.7 percent because of costs related to its planned sale to PNC Financial Services Group. The Baltimore-based bank reported net income of $72.9 million, or 57 cents per share, compared with $74.9 million, or 60 cents per share, for the year-earlier period. The average forecast of analysts was for earnings of 59 cents per share. The company's shares fell 37 cents to close at $46.80 in trading yesterday.

First Mariner Bancorp reported a higher-than-expected $3.58 million loss for the third quarter but the bank said yesterday that it is through the worst of the fallout from a declining real estate market and a flood of bad home loans. "We have no more loans that have been returned to us. That aspect of it is finished," said First Mariner chief executive Edwin F. Hale Sr. "We've narrowed our losses this quarter from the previous quarter. And we think there's going to be a little bit brighter future for us in the next quarter."

The nation's economy shook off its recent torpor to grow at a solid 3.4 percent annual pace in the second quarter, the government reported yesterday, as improving business investment and higher exports worked to offset a sharp slowdown in consumer spending. The Commerce Department's report on gross domestic product modestly topped the 3.2 percent most economists had been expecting, and it was also the best performance since the first quarter of 2006, when the economy was riding the final months of the boom in the housing industry.

The U.S. economy hit the skids in the first quarter, posting its worst growth rate in four years. But the continued spending of consumers and business people has many experts predicting better times ahead. The slumping housing market was named as a primary culprit in a Commerce Department report yesterday showing that the nation's gross domestic product grew at a surprisingly sluggish 1.3 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, the lowest pace since the first quarter of 2003.

Queen Elizabeth II once famously referred to her annus horribilis -- a horrible year during which almost everything went badly, from royal family scandals to a raging fire that destroyed parts of Windsor Castle. The American housing market experienced its own form of annus horribilis in 2007 -- a year when all the sins and excesses of the previous six years were visited upon nearly everyone in the system: Homeowners lost $160 billion in net equity in their homes from just the first quarter of 2007 through the third, according to the latest "flow of funds" data from the Federal Reserve.

NEWARK, N.J. -- Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., the worst-performing U.S. homebuilder stock, forecast a wider second-quarter loss yesterday and said the subprime mortgage crisis is exacerbating weakness in the home sales market. Its shares fell 4 percent. The loss excluding land charges for the three months that ended April 30 is predicted to be about 30 cents a share, the company said. It had predicted a loss of 5 cents to 20 cents a share. Including the charge, the loss may be 45 cents to 50 cents.

ROUND ROCK, Texas -- Dell Computer Corp. shares fell 9.7 percent yesterday after the biggest direct-seller of personal computers reported its second straight quarter of slowing sales growth.Shares in Dell fell $4.25 to $39.8125 in trading of 65.1 million shares, making it the most active U.S. stock. The shares are still up 9 percent on the year, while well below the record $55 reached Feb. 1. Yesterday's drop slashed about $1.55 billion off the value of Chairman Michael Dell's holdings.The company said sales for the first quarter that ended April 30 rose 41 percent, less than the year-ago quarter's increase of 51 percent and slower than the 54 percent growth Dell averaged in the previous eight quarters.

Legg Mason Inc. reported the second-best quarter yesterday in its 100-year history, and its shares promptly tumbled 11.8 percent.An even better quarter had been predicted by analysts, and "missing the numbers" contributed to the weakness in the company's shares, as did the general sell-off in the stock market.Legg made $28.3 million in the fiscal second quarter that ended Sept. 30, up 30 percent from the $21.8 million reported for the second quarter last year.Diluted earnings per share jumped 27 percent to 47 cents in the quarter, compared with 37 cents reported for the year-earlier period.

Allegheny Energy Inc. yesterday reported second-quarter earnings of $64.5 million, or 55 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $211.6 million, or $1.73 a share, in the second quarter of 1998.Included in the 1998 numbers was a charge of $265.4 million associated with the Hagerstown-based utility's restructuring order in Pennsylvania.Nearly half of the company's 1.4 million customers are in Pennsylvania, the only state in the company's five-state service area with a deregulated electricity industry.

No. 8-ranked Glenelg's Kris Brust had 11 rebounds, enabling her to set a school season record of 333, as the Gladiators eliminated Hammond, 84-44, in Class 1A South yesterday.Brust also led all scorers in the game with 25 points.Glenelg (23-1) will host the winner of today's Oakland Mill-Brunswick game tomorrow.Central-PG 60, Long Reach 55: Nadiyah Simms had 24 points, helping Central to the victory, as did eight free throws in the last two minutes in Class 2A South.The Lightning's LaToya Hines scored 22.No.

Spicemaker McCormick & Co. said third-quarter profit increased 9.5 percent as it began to see the benefit from its acquisition of Lawry's seasoning company last year. The Sparks-based company was also helped by cost-cutting measures and price increases on some of its products. On Thursday, the company reported net income of $75.1 million, or 57 cents per share, for the quarter ended Aug. 31. That was compared with $68.6 million, or 52 cents per share, for the same period a year ago. Sales increased 1 percent to $791.

Legg Mason Inc. announced Monday a profit for the three months ending June 30, reversing five straight quarterly losses as a market rebound, lower operating costs and improved performance of its key mutual funds helped the Baltimore money manager. Net income was $50.1 million, or 35 cents per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $36.1 million, or 26 cents per diluted share, in the corresponding period last year. "While our mission is not fully accomplished, we are pleased to return Legg Mason to profitability," Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Mark R. Fetting told analysts during a conference call.

Constellation Energy reported a $123.5 million loss for the first three months of 2009 Tuesday, as it continued to pay the costs of last year's brush with bankruptcy and the near-collapse of its commodities trading business. Excluding those one-time costs, Constellation's operations were profitable, and company officials said they were optimistic their recovery is on track. "We're pleased with our company's earnings for 2009 thus far," said Chief Executive Officer Mayo A. Shattuck III, in a conference call for analysts and investors Tuesday morning.

1st Mariner Bancorp said Friday that it lost $3.1 million for the first quarter, or 48 cents per share, as the Baltimore company continued to see deterioration in its real estate loan portfolio. For the corresponding quarter last year, 1st Mariner lost $3.278 million, or 52 cents per share. Nonperforming assets in the first quarter rose to $65.1 million, or 4.72 percent of total assets, up nearly $25 million from a year earlier. That increase is largely due to bad loans in residential construction and development.

FTI Consulting shares show gain Shares of Baltimore's FTI Consulting rose nearly 9 percent Wednesday after a first-quarter earnings report that beat anaylsts' expectations. Earnings rose to $31.7 million for the quarter, or 60 cents per share, and there was a $1 million increase over the corresponding quarter last year. Revenue reached a record $347.8 million, a 13.3 percent increase over a year ago. The company, which offers forensic and litigation consulting as well as technology services, said business picked up in the first quarter in light of the financial crisis.

Black & Decker Corp.'s first-quarter profit plunged 93 percent as a weak economy hurt sales of its power tools and other products much worse than it had anticipated. Executives at the Towson-based company don't believe the economy will improve any time soon, saying they expect sales to decline just as much in the second quarter as the first three months of the year. The company also lowered its outlook for the year. The company on Thursday reported earnings for the quarter that ended March 29 of $4.9 million, or 8 cents per diluted share.

Ciena Corp. said it is cutting 9 percent of its work force, or 200 people, as it tries to curb costs to deal with a slowdown in sales of its network equipment to phone companies. The reductions will occur "across every organization and geography," Ciena Chief Executive Gary Smith said in a conference call with analysts. The company, which has 2,238 employees worldwide and 650 in Baltimore, said a small number of jobs would be cut at the Linthicum headquarters. It did not give specifics.

WASHINGTON -The U.S. economy shrank by a larger-than-expected annualized rate of 6.2 percent during the final three months of 2008, the worst showing in about 25 years, according to a revised government estimate out yesterday. The new estimate of the fourth-quarter gross domestic product from the Commerce Department is far worse than the initial estimate of negative 3.8 percent and also larger than the 5 percent drop in growth most analysts had anticipated. It's the largest contraction in one quarter since the first quarter of 1982, when the economy shrank by 6.4 percent.

Peet Poillon scored a career-high four goals and Kyle Wimer added three to lead sixth-ranked UMBC past Rutgers, 17-10, yesterday at UMBC Stadium. The Retrievers improved to 2-0, and the Scarlet Knights fell to 1-2. Poillon added three assists, and Wimer also contributed an assist. Rutgers scored the first three goals of the game, but UMBC recorded six of the final seven of the half to take a 7-5 lead. The Retrievers continued the run into the second half, scoring five of the first six goals in the third quarter, with two by Poillon and two by junior attackman Chris Jones.

This was the reason Bruce Nechanicky endured two knee surgeries and countless hours of rehabilitation. The senior attackman scored Navy's last two goals to help lift No. 10 Navy to an 8-6 victory over No. 15 Ohio State before an announced 2,554 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis yesterday. The Midshipmen, who also received two goals and an assist from Tim Paul, two goals from Brendan Connors, and a goal and three assists from Andy Warner, improved to 2-0 and earned a win that could help them to their sixth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance.