Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 1, 1994                   TAG: 9404010118
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CORPORATE PROFITS REACH 3-YEAR HIGH

The Commerce Department also reported Thursday that after-tax corporate profits in the fourth quarter of 1993 rose 8.4 percent, to a $297.4 billion seasonally adjusted annual rate.

The increase is the largest for any three-month period since an 11.9 percent gain in the final quarter of 1992. The full-year performance is the best since a 12.6 percent advance in 1990.

Some economists said the report could prove to be a prop for the stock market when interest rates stabilize and inflation fears ease.

The robust profits have helped give companies cash to buy efficiency-enhancing computers and machinery, an area of spending that was among the strongest sectors of the economy last year.

The report said before-tax profits rose 10.6 percent in the final three months of 1993 to a rate of $491 billion, after a 0.4 percent drop in the third quarter.

Dividend payments to stockholders edged up 0.4 percent, to a $170.3 billion rate, after a 0.7 rise the previous quarter.

Cash flows from current production, the funds that corporations have available for investment, increased 3.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $560.6 billion after a 4.2 percent rise in the July-September quarter.

- Associated Press