Archive Corp.: Continuing its recovery from a...

Archive Corp.: Continuing its recovery from a year of restructuring and huge losses, Archive Corp. Monday reported a profit for the third consecutive quarter of fiscal 1992.

The Costa Mesa supplier of data storage backup products announced third-quarter earnings of $3.7 million, contrasted with a loss of $50.3 million in the year-ago quarter.

In its fiscal year ended in November, the company lost $49.3 million, which it attributed to acquisition-related debt and slowed sales because of the recession. It laid off 800 people in 1990 and 1991.

Archive attributed its performance in its most recent quarter to a $9.5-million favorable settlement of a patent-infringement lawsuit and cost controls--the company said it has reduced spending by almost $5 million per quarter for the last four quarters.

The third-quarter earnings translate into 24 cents per share, contrasted with a loss of $3.83 per share in the year-ago quarter.

Quarterly revenue was $96.7 million, up 15% from $84.3 million during the 1991 third quarter.

The company’s stock, which is traded on the NASDAQ system, was unchanged Monday at $7.88.

“It was a good quarter for them, it’s a shame” that computer suppliers’ stocks are undervalued on Wall Street, said Steve DeLuca, an analyst at Cruttenden & Co., an Irvine investment bank. He said investors are expecting a shakeout among makers of personal computers, who buy products from Archive and its competitors.

For the first nine months of this fiscal year, Archive earned $7 million on revenue of $280.9 million, contrasted with a loss of $48.4 million on revenue of $263.8 million during the first nine months of fiscal 1991.