PHILADELPHIA - Unisys Corp. said Monday third-quarter net income nearly tripled from a year ago and remains on track to achieve 50 percent growth in full-year earnings per share, despite declining revenues for the quarter.

The Blue Bell-based company said it had net income of $59 million, or 18 cents per share, for the July-September quarter, compared with $20.9 million, or 7 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2001.

The results were a penny per share better than the consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Quarterly revenue declined 3 percent to $1.33 billion from $1.38 billion a year ago.

"Our third-quarter results, delivered in a very difficult economic environment, demonstrate the strength of our business strategy," Unisys chairman and chief executive Lawrence A. Weinbach said in a news release.

Domestic revenue increased 3 percent in the third quarter to $619 million, compared to $599 million in the year-ago period, the company said. Revenue in international markets decreased 8 percent to $713 million from $777 million a year ago, as sales declines in Latin America and Europe offset gains in the Asia/Pacific market.

"Perhaps the clearest example of the progress we've made is our order growth in the quarter," Weinbach said.

New contracts include a multiyear deal to build an advanced information technology infrastructure for the Transportation Security Administration, valued at $244 million, and a three-year contract extension worth $252 million with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for managing the state's data center.

Unisys provides information technology services for companies in the financial services, transportation and communications industries and for government agencies. The company also has an increasing business providing services that corporations decide to outsource, such as processing of claims or payments.

For the first nine months of the year, Unisys had net income of $133.9 million, up from $102.3 million in the first three quarters of 2001. Revenue fell to $4.05 billion from $4.46 billion in the same span of 2001.

Unisys shares rose 17 cents to close at $6.76 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares gained another $1.09, or 16 percent, in extended trading.

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