Electro Rent Corp. Profit Drops 52% in 4th Quarter

Electro Rent Corp., a Van Nuys-based lessor of personal computers and electronic testing equipment, reported that its fiscal fourth-quarter profit plummeted 52%, to $975,000 from $2.02 million a year earlier.

Revenue for the three months that ended May 31 were up 8%, to $27 million from $25.1 million a year earlier. But the company incurred about $2.7 million more in selling, administrative and general expenses in the latest quarter than it did a year earlier.

For its fiscal year that ended May 31, Electro Rent posted an 18% jump in profit, to $10.1 million from $8.57 million in the previous fiscal year. But that included a $2.6-million credit in the latest fiscal year for a change in accounting method. The company’s fiscal-year revenue totaled $102.7 million, virtually unchanged from its previous fiscal year.