Tyco International Ltd. reported a 38 percent increase in third-quarter earnings per share yesterday, driven by a strong sales in the company's telecommunication and electronics segment.

The company also said it expects a good fourth quarter and full fiscal year.

"We anticipate a good fourth quarter and our fiscal year 2001 which begins on October 1st looks very good to us at this time. Our balance sheet is very strong,'' Tyco's chairman and chief executive L. Donald Kozlowski told analysts in a conference call.

He added he was very comfortable with the street's consensus estimates. For the fourth quarter, the analysts consensus is 64 earnings per share and for fiscal year 2001, the consensus is $2.68, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, which compiles such data.

The acquisitive conglomerate, which is headquartered in Bermuda but operated from Exeter, New Hampshire, reported net income for the quarter rose to $992.1 million or 58 cents a diluted share compared with $699.4 million or 42 cents a share for the same period in 1999.

Analysts on average had forecast Tyco would earn 57 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial.

Revenues for the first nine months of 2000 rose to $21.13 billion, 30 percent higher than last year's $16.27 billion, said the maker of fire detection and security equipment, medical devices and flow control products.

Shares were down 2-15/16 to 51-1/8 in mid-afternoon trading yesterday.

The company's shares surged to a new 12-month high of 55-4/16 last week after word got out that a US Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into Tyco's accounting for its acquisitions ended without any enforcement action being recommended. Tyco executives were on the road boosting Tycom Ltd., their undersea optical-cable operation which is expected to have a $1 billion initial public offering next month. Consequently, in the analysts conference call, they were constrained about how much they could say about their telecommunications and electronics segment.

"Revenue (from the segment) is up 66 percent to $3.2 billion with organic growth of 29 percent,'' Kozlowski said.

He said he expected the company as a whole to have $3.3 billion in free cash flow less the $300 million to $400 million he expected to spend on Tycom.

Kozlowski told analysts he expected the company's divestiture of ADT Automotive, Inc, the nation's third largest auto auction company, which is expected to close in mid-August would net Tyco about $1 billion.