if 3com is doing great, ALSC must be doing exscellent (3com is aslc major customer)
08:00 [COMS] 3COM SHARES RALLY 2 11/16 TO 30 IN PRE-MARKET ACTIVITY, JEFFERIES.
3Com Rises After 1st-Qtr Profit Surges 38%, Topping Forecasts
Santa Clara, California, Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- 3Com Corp. shares rose as much as 9.8 percent after the No. 2 maker of computer-networking equipment said fiscal first-quarter profit rose a better-than-expected 38 percent.
The shares rose as much as 2 11/16 to 30 in early trading. Before today, they had fallen about 63 percent since the end of 1996, making 3Com the eighth-worst performer on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index during that time.
3Com boosted sales of its Palm handheld organizers by 50 percent to $174.2 million, while revenue from equipment that links corporate computers rose 9 percent. The company also benefited from a more efficient inventory management system, letting it buy cheaper parts more quickly, said President and Chief Operating Officer Bruce Claflin. ''They're running the operation a lot tighter,'' said Patrick Houghton, an analyst at Sutro & Co., who rates 3Com shares ''buy.''
The company late yesterday said profit from operations for the period ended Aug. 27 rose to $119.3 million, or 33 cents a share, from $86.7 million, or 24 cents, a year earlier. Revenue fell 1.3 percent to $1.39 billion from $1.41 billion.
Gross margin, or the percentage of sales left after subtracting production costs, widened to 46.7 percent from 42.9 percent a year ago.
Sales of older products, which include telephone-based modems and computer-connection cards, dropped 19 percent to $539 million.
The company was expected to earn 24 cents a share, the average estimate of analysts polled by First Call Corp. Estimates ranged from 17 cents to 26 cents. Analysts expected revenue of about $1.39 billion to $1.45 billion. |
