Motorola quarterly profit down, revenue up�

Reuters.com reprots on Motorola (MOT, which were a mixed bag. While "Cellular phone sales rose 61 percent from a year earlier to 46.1 million, and Motorola said it gained market share," the company's "first-quarter profit fell slightly due to stock options expenses and weakness in its network equipment business in Asia."

According to Motorola, "profit dropped to $686 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $692 million, or 28 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter."

Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder thought "a decline in Motorola's gross profit margin to 30.2 percent from almost 33 percent a year ago was disappointing, despite strong growth in its mobile handset business." He said, "That's where they're going to get spanked."

Snyder also was concerned that "the company's other units, such as its network equipment division, were dragging profits down."

Motorola said it sold 18 million RAZR handsets and expects to ship its 50 millionth in the second quarter. "Cellphone shipments rose 3 percent from the fourth quarter and its share of the cellphone market rose to 21 percent from 19 percent in the fourth quarter."