Its stock price fell more than 5 percent Thursday, when the Madison-based maker of antidepressant Effexor and injected arthritis drug Enbrel reported net income of $335 million, or 25 cents per share. Excluding a one-time, $639.9 million charge for manufacturing restructuring, debt retirement and other items, net income was $801.7 million, or 60 cents per share.

That missed by 5 cents the consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

A year ago, Wyeth reported fourth-quarter net income of $1.57 billion, or $1.18 per share. Excluding one-time items, 2002's fourth-quarter net was $864.1 million, or 65 cents per share. That was boosted by a $1.54 billion gain from the sale of the last of its millions of shares in biotech company Amgen, its partner in marketing Enbrel.

Pharmaceuticals analyst Stephen Scala of SG Cowan said analysts' expectations were simply too high.

Mara Goldstein, pharmaceuticals analyst at CIBC World Markets Corp., said Wyeth probably would have made its target if not for $100 million in inventory write-downs.

"The guidance for '04 and components of that guidance, I think, is the bigger issue," she said.

Chief financial officer Kenneth Martin said Wyeth expects earnings per share to range from $2.60 to $2.70, below analysts' $2.75 forecast. First-quarter earnings will be flat, mainly due to costs for late-stage testing of experimental drugs, but revenues should be up 6 percent to 9 percent, he said.

Shares fell $2.31 to $42.34 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

"2003 was a good solid year for Wyeth," despite operational and other challenges, Martin said.

Fourth-quarter revenues were up 13.6 percent, to $4.33 billion from $3.81 billion a year earlier.

The company's pharmaceutical, consumer health and animal health businesses all had double-digit sales increases, with prescription drug sales rising 14 percent to $3.46 billion.

Sales growth was led by Effexor, up 46 percent to $594 million, along with Enbrel and Protonix for severe heartburn. Centrum vitamins, Advil pain reliever and Alavert allergy medicine led growth in consumer products.

Analyst Timothy Anderson of Prudential Financial noted total revenues were "in OK shape," but gross margin was down at 69.9 percent and spending was higher than anticipated. That included a 24 percent jump in sales and administrative expenses, due to employee raises, higher pension costs and more spending on drug marketing.

Despite the severe flu season this year, sales of Wyeth's new nasal spray influenza vaccine, FluMist, have been so dismal - only $15 million - the company is giving some away and expects to write off about $20 million worth of inventory. Wyeth markets FluMist along with MedImmune Inc.

"We're working right now on what we're going to do in 2004" to boost FluMist sales, chief executive officer Robert Essner said in an interview.

Goldstein said she doesn't expect a big profit from FluMist for years.

Wyeth's once-dominant Premarin franchise of hormone replacement drugs had sales of only about $250 million in the last quarter. Sales of both Premarin and Prempro, for menopause symptoms, sank after a federal study linked them to unexpected cancer risks.

Wyeth took write-downs of $40 million each in the quarter for payments to ranchers dropped from its program collecting urine from pregnant mares - Premarin's key ingredient - and for its ReFacto clotting medication for hemophilia.

Essner said Wyeth is cracking down on fraudulent claims of people allegedly harmed by its recalled diet drugs, which were part of the once popular fen-phen combination. Between ongoing payments in a huge class-action settlement, individual lawsuits and other legal costs, Wyeth has spent $13.1 billion and reserved another $3.5 billion.

"I'd love to get this diet-drug issue behind the company and allow the great things we're doing at this company to stand alone," Essner said.

Wyeth has four drugs in late-stage human testing - including a powerful antibiotic and a "continuous contraceptive" pill that would prevent menstruation.

None of its top sellers face generic competition in the near future, Essner noted.

For all of 2003, Wyeth reported net income of $2.05 billion, or $1.54 per share, down 54 percent from $4.45 billion, or $3.33 per share, recorded in 2002. The 2002 results were inflated by a $4.08 billion gain from the sale of Amgen stock.

Revenues for 2003 totaled $15.85 billion, up 8.7 percent from revenues of $14.58 billion in 2002.