Motorola Inc. reports its second-quarter results before the stock market opens Thursday.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Motorola is still turning around its phone business, but the second quarter isn't likely to give a lot of clues on its progress. Its latest flagship phone, the Droid X, launched just after the end of the quarter. In any case, the business isn't slated to be profitable until the fourth quarter.
Motorola's phone sales have been in decline for years, and its current strategy of focusing on smart phones is helping trim losses but isn't boosting the raw number of phones sold. In the first quarter, it sold 8.5 million phones, and was beat for the first time by Apple Inc. and its iPhones.
While it loses money on cell phones, Motorola has been held afloat by sales of cable set-top boxes, police radios and wireless network equipment.
Last week, Motorola said it would sell its network equipment division for $1.2 billion to Nokia Siemens Networks, a Finnish-German joint venture. That deal is expected to close late this year.
Motorola's long-planned breakup is then scheduled for early next year. Motorola Mobility will make phones and cable set-top boxes, and Motorola Solutions will make police radios and bar-code scanners. The split is driven by a desire to present two simple stories to investors rather than one complex one.
WHY IT MATTERS: Investors have been bullish on Motorola this month, sending the stock up. That could set the stage for disappointment. Motorola laid off 11,000 people last year, but has signaled that the big layoffs are now behind it.
WHAT'S EXPECTED: Motorola has said it expects to earn 7 cents to 9 cents per share, excluding unusual items. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect it to earn 8 cents per share on $5.2 billion in revenue.
LAST YEAR'S QUARTER: Motorola earned $26 million, or 1 cent per share, in last year's second quarter, on revenue of $5.5 billion.