<div id="subtitle">Temple-Inland reports 4th-quarter profit boosted by benefit, adjusted results fall</div><div><p>Timber company Temple-Inland Inc. on Tuesday reported a fourth-quarter profit, helped by a tax credit and cost-cutting, though sales fell at both its corrugated packaging and building products units.</p><p>Compared with a loss a year earlier of $6 million, Temple-Inland earned $38 million, or 34 cents per share, in the quarter that ended in December.</p><p>Excluding the tax credit, it lost 7 cents per share, while analysts polled by Thomson Reuters predicted, on average, that it would earn 3 cents per share. Analysts typically exclude one-time items from their forecasts.</p><p>Revenue fell 13 percent to $845 million from $973 million last year. Analysts expected revenue of $836.3 million.</p><p>Sales of corrugated packaging fell 13 percent to $715 million, and sales of building products fell 16 percent to $130 million.</p><p>The company said lower input costs helped increase its operating profit. Its building products business benefited from cost-cutting but continued to reflect the weak housing market.</p><p>For the full year, Temple-Inland earned $206 million, or 40 cents per share, compared with a loss of $8 million, or 8 cents per share, in 2008. Excluding one-time items, it earned 70 cents per.</p><p>Annual revenue fell 8 percent to $3.58 billion from $3.88 billion last year.</p><p>The company's shares rose 94 cents, or 5.7 percent, to $17.39 during midday trading. The stock has traded between $2.37 and $23.32 over the past year. The general market also rallied. By midday trading the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 122 points, boosted by hope that the European Union will help Greece manage its growing debt burden.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=68753937&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

Copyright 2010  <a href="http://www.ap.org">AP News</a></div></div>