Profit

Advanta Corp. yesterday reported a steep decline in profit from its small-business credit cards in the first quarter, as the slumping economy caused more borrowers to fall behind in their payments. Even so, the Spring House company's class B shares jumped 16.45 percent, or $1.24, to $8.78 in Nasdaq trading yesterday because the earnings were better than expected. Advanta said its credit card operation earned $6.67 million in the first quarter, off sharply from $21.17 million in the same period a year earlier.

After a year and half of losses, executives at Commodore International, the West Chester-based computer manufacturer, believe the company has finally turned the corner. Higher sales of Commodore's major computer lines - the C64, Amiga, and PC - coupled with a reduction in debt and work force, enabled the firm yesterday to report a profit of $1.25 million on net sales of $208 million for the fourth quarter, which ended July 30. At this time last year, Commodore had a net loss of $124 million on net sales of $66.1 million.

Dick Gregory's estranged partners in a Philadelphia-based diet business want the comedian-turned-nutritionist held in civil contempt of court for allegedly setting up his own sales force to bypass theirs. Gregory's lawyer, Adam Bourgeois, also was named a target of the contempt motion filed yesterday with U.S. District Judge Charles R. Weiner by partners Larry D. Depte and Sandra L. Henderson, operators of Correction Connection Inc. According to lawyers for Correction Connection, Gregory and Bourgeois allegedly managed to sell nearly 94,000 cans of Gregory's trademark Slim-Safe Bahamian Diet, despite a court-approved agreement, filed Nov. 29, that Correction Connection would be the exclusive distributor of the diet pending further order of the court.

Shares of MBNA Corp. fell sharply yesterday as the Wilmington credit-card company blamed falling profit on borrowers who "unexpectedly" paid off card loans to avoid rising fees. "It almost seems like customers are getting more rational. They're getting more selective about debt and how much they want to pay for it," said Matthew Taylor, portfolio manager at Chartwell Partners in Berwyn, which held around two million MBNA shares at the end of last year. MBNA shares hit a two-year intraday low of $18.50 before closing at $19.28, down $3.83, or 16.6 percent, on a day most major bank stocks rose.

And all this time we thought the Phillies were losing money. Not so, says Forbes Magazine. In a report that sharply contradicts the austere image projected by Phillies ownership, the business publication says in its current issue that the club turned a profit last season. According to the magazine, the Phillies were one of 16 teams that finished the 1998 season in the black. Forbes says the Phils made $4.5 million last season, baseball's 10th-largest profit. The report was rejected by Phillies president David Montgomery.

Jetronic Industries Inc., the Philadelphia electronics and retail firm, yesterday reported profits for both its third fiscal quarter and nine-month periods, in contrast to losses last year. The company attributed the improvements to better results from its power- conversion operations and to profits in its retail-furniture operations. The furniture business was restructured and trimmed after it registered substantial losses last year. Results included gains the sale of "marginal properties.

City, state and federal officials gave the embattled Council for Labor and Industry about $6.5 million to make the huge Wissahickon Industrial Center a thriving industrial mall and waited in vain for 14 years for their investment to pay off with hundreds of new private-sector jobs. But after CLI sold the building to Kenneth Goldenberg, the Montgomery County developer got a substantial return on his investment in only one year. Goldenberg last month sold the massive 640,000-square-foot, block-long building to Wayne developer Brian O'Neill for $2.49 million - almost four times the $675,000 that deed records show he paid for the WIC in February 1988.

Continuing a dramatic turnaround begun in mid-1991, Midlantic Corp. yesterday reported its third profitable quarter and its first profitable year since 1989. The parent of Midlantic National and Continental banks said its biggest problem - its pile of sour loans and foreclosed real estate - continued to shrink in the quarter. Total problem assets declined to $1.26 billion as of Dec. 31, a 13 percent drop from Sept. 30 and 30 percent from a year earlier. As a result, Midlantic, which is based in Edison, N.J., was able to shrink the amount it diverts from profits to cover possible loan losses to $47 million during the fourth quarter, from $109 million in the same period of 1991.

Ford Motor Co. yesterday announced a 24.4 percent rise in fourth-quarter earnings and record annual profits, as results in its overseas business overshadowed a decline in its U.S. automotive earnings. Ford reported fourth-quarter profit of $1.16 billion or $2.42 a share, compared with $932 million or $1.87 a share in the 1987 period. Revenues rose to $23.91 billion from $20.99 billion a year earlier. Annual profits rose to an industry-record $5.3 billion, on revenue of $92.45 billion.

Pharmaceutical distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp. said Thursday that its profit grew 13 percent in the fiscal third quarter as its drug delivery unit did more business. AmerisourceBergen, which is based in Valley Forge, said its profit rose to $184.4 million, or 66 cents per share, in the three months ended June 30. That's up from $163.2 million, or 57 cents per share, one year earlier. Revenue increased 3 percent, to $20.16 billion from $19.6 billion. Analysts expected a profit of 59 cents per share and $20.25 billion, according to FactSet.