The net income increase easily exceeded the 8% gain insales, although there were quite a few instances where mergers, one-time gains,IPOs and other extraordinary events boosted comparisons for the 50 publiccompanies’ results for the quarter ended nearest to Sep. 30. Return on Sales(ROS) was a strong 7.76% for the period, up from 7.00% last year.

Business was pretty solid in Q3 but maybe not quite asgood as these figures suggest. In the seasonally important third quarter, thesneaker sector became the first to record more than $1 billion in quarterlyprofits. Nike, Adidas-Salomon, Reebok and Puma all showed large improvements,although Reebok’s gain was ... Log in to view full article.