Hi Bud,
I have never heard PeopleSoft and New Dimension mentioned in competition before. If I understand PeopleSoft correctly, they compete with Oracle and Sybase. New D competes more with companies like Platinum Technologies.
Do they have quality products? Some of their products have been the highest rated in their respective software categories by no less than the Gartner Group, and I hear the Meta Group also has great things to say about them. In fact, as is mentioned in earlier postings, New D beat out CA, IBM, Platinum, and others to put their software into the Defense Information Systems Agency's sixteen mega centers around the country. In the process, they unseated software already in place by CA. Plus, I personally feel that the selection of New D by the Defense Department speaks volumes about the quality of their products and service, as New D is an Israeli company, sitting in an occasional hot zone, and not primarily on American soil. That the Defense Dept. entrusted the future of their computing environment to a company not from inside our own borders tells me that New D's products must have been leaps and bounds better than the competition. New D has many major companies as clients, including AT&T, British Telecom, Fidelity Investments, etc., etc., etc.
Per the Oppenheimer analyst who initiated coverage on New D last fall, Nicole Schmidt, the company is rated a "Strong Buy". At present Oppenheimer is the only company making a recommendation on them. In the past, New D has been very tight lipped about making predictions about the future, and that has kept analysts away. That is changing, so many of us expect to see more analyst coverage later this year. They will never have a lot of coverage, but they don't have to have a lot. By the way, depending on where you look you will see the analyst recommendation is a "buy" or a "strong buy". Take it from me, as I have a copy of the report, it is rated a "strong buy". Also, it appears as if the analyst recently upped her 1998 target on New D to $33 from $30, or an increase of 10%. This may be due to the fact that New D recently inked a deal with Anacomp to work together to blend New D's output management software (highest rated by Gartner)with Anacomp's own solution. Note that New D has about 2,150 customers world wide, while Anacomp has 15,000. Anacomp will market New D's output management solution in the U.S. to work with their product, which means their sales people will be beating the street with New D's products. In fact, a chunk of Anacomp's sales force were in Tel Aviv a few weeks back getting trained about New D's software.
Yeah, the stock is quiet now. It gets this way sometimes. Then a spurt of activity will occur for a few days or weeks, then it is quiet time again. My PERSONAL opinion is that it is a very great buy in here. They have done great things over the last few years to turn the company around, and into a technology leader. All that is left is for their client list to broaden, and the earnings should come pouring in. They trade at a huge earnings multiple discount to their peers, per Oppenheimer, and that gap should significantly narrow over the next year or so.
Hope I answered your questions.
Mike |
