Harold -- .05 - .07 cents over expectations?!?!?! Are you nuts?! Given 3Com's recent history, if they had the numbers to blow out the quarter, they would carry some $$ over to the next quarter. Given 3Com's channel stuffing fiasco and subsequent problems, they would hedge their bets.
I find it hard to believe that 3Com, playing in the high growth indsutry that they play in, cannot grow revenue:
Q4: $1.416 billion
Q3 (seasonally weak Q: 1.411
Q2: 1.541
Q1: 1.406
98:
Q4: 1.375
Q3: 1.25
Q2: 1.2 (oops!)
Q1: 1.6 (! -- let's stuff the channels!)
Lucky for them they've gotten expenses under better control, and are able to show earnings growth. But heck, I don't see how a major networking vendor, serving an explosive market, can remain so flat. Actually ... I can. NICs, modems: commodity products with plunging prices. Systems business: most of that is their low-end switching business, which is closing in on commodity status with dropping prices.
This stock is doomed to tease, have a few rallies, and then plunge drastically everytime Intel drops NIC prices. |
