Adtran reports higher profit, sales for Q3

As much of Wall Street was analyzing Intel's third quarter earnings Tuesday, the telecom sector turned to its own bellwethers. Network equipment vendor Adtran is one important one, and it reported higher net income and an 11 percent revenue increase as part of its third quarter numbers.

The vendor registered net income of $22.4 million, up from $21.5 million in the third quarter of 2007. The revenue increase resulted in total sales for the quarter of $137.2 million, up from $123.8 million for the same period last year. Optical access-related revenue in particular was strong, hitting a record high of $16.7 million in the third quarter, an increase of 21 percent.

Adtran CEO Tom Stanton said the company did see a brief slowing in carrier spending during the quarter, but that it picked up toward the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter. He further said market share gains would off-set current economic pressure, but the company still was entering the fourth quarter "with some level of caution."

For more:
- see this Associated Press story at Forbes
- see this earnings transcript at Seeking Alpha

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Adtran previously hinted at potential slower spending by Tier 2 carriers
Adtran had a strong first quarter earlier this year