Earnings Watch: Updates, advisories and surprises

WS Atkins to beat earnings expectations

(2:47 AM ET) LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Design and engineering consultancy WS Atkins PLC /quotes/comstock/23s!e:atk (UK:ATK 738.50, +50.00, +7.26%) said Wednesday that it expects to report results for the year ended March 31 ahead of market expectations after a strong trading performance in the fiscal fourth quarter. The group said the performance was driven by increasing activity in its Middle East business and further recovery of client payments in the region, against which it had already taken provisions.

Fresnillo gold production up 13%

(2:33 AM ET) LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Mining company Fresnillo PLC /quotes/comstock/23s!e:fres (UK:FRES 1,596.00, +20.00, +1.27%) said Wednesday that first-quarter gold production rose over 13% to 96,407 ounces due to the expanded capacity of the group's Soledad-Dipolos facility. Silver production was down 2.2% at 10.1 million ounces due to a lower quality of ore from its Fresnillo mine. The company said commercial production at its Saucito facility began on April 1. CEO Jaime Lomelin said the next step in the group's gold strategy is to develop the Noche Buena mine, where construction began in March. He added that Fresnillo is on track to achieve its target of producing 44 million ounces of silver in 2011.

ASML Holding net tripled, sales nearly doubled

(2:03 AM ET) TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) - ASML Holding NV, /quotes/comstock/15*!asml/quotes/nls/asml (ASML 42.41, -0.49, -1.14%) /quotes/comstock/24s!e:asml (NL:ASML 28.84, -0.58, -1.97%) the Veldhoven, Netherlands, producer of semiconductor-lithography equipment, reported first-quarter net income more than tripled as sales nearly doubled. Earnings reached €395 million ($570 million), or €0.9 a share, from €107.3 million, or €0.25, in the year-earlier quarter. Sales reached €1.45 billion from €741.8 million. A survey of analysts by FactSet Research produced consensus estimates of profit of €0.82 a share on €1.43 billion of revenue. First-quarter order bookings were €845 million and ASML expects new orders valued at between €900 million and €1 billion in the second quarter. ASML pegs second-quarter sales at about €1.5 billion and gross margin around 45%. Chipmakers are "certainly showing caution in assessing the economic impact of the Japanese earthquake on their supply chain as well as on the overall end-product market" and "some customers have indeed retimed a limited number of deliveries," President and Chief Executive Eric Meurice said in a Wednesday statement. But the "structural needs for lithography capacity continue to be sufficiently large for 2011" that "such schedule changes do not impact significantly our revenues expectations for the year."

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