Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB] last week absorbed its latest loss when it reported first quarter 2000 earnings, but company officials said that a shift to conservative accounting principles deepened the financial hit.

David Thompson, Orbital’s chairman and CEO, said, “Our financial results for the first quarter reflect a good start to what we see as a rebuilding year for the company. Revenue, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), cash flow and new orders were in line with our targets for the period. Although our reported losses for the quarter were negatively affected by the accounting changes that Orbital adopted in 1999, these changes are expected to enhance our profit potential in 2001 and future years.”

Orbital’s total enterprise revenue in the first quarter was $233.9 million up 11 percent from first quarter 1999 total revenue of $210.6 million.

EBITDA in the first quarter of 2000 were $15.9 million, compared with $13.8 million in the first quarter of 1999, a 16 percent increase. Operating income was about $2.1 million in the first quarter of 2000, compared with an operating loss of $440,000 in the comparable 1999 quarter.

As a result of continued start-up losses in the company’s satellite services businesses, after-tax losses were approximately about $26.5 million or 71 cents per share in the 2000 quarter, compared with after-tax losses of about $26.2 million or 70 cents per share last year.