Last Thursday, Newbridge Networks presumably put on its best face for a security analysts meeting and for shareholders. Also, several contract announcements were made. On that day, Yorkton Securities stated that they maintained a hold" rating. On Friday, Scotia Capital Markets maintained a "hold" rating; ABN AMRO maintained a "buy"; RBC Dominion maintained a "buy" rating; RBC Dominion maintained an "outperform" rating; CIBC World Markets reiterated a "strong buy" rating. After all was said and done, a mixed bag of analyst ratings, and I could not find any upgrades. Matthews can keep telling everyone that he's not afraid of a good fight, he can keep telling shareholders that Newbridge is "kicking butt." The bottom line is that shareholders are not being rewarded.
Today, Nortel Networks announced new products "to handle massive bandwidth demands" over the internet. In a very unstable market, Nortel rose $2 to close at $50, a record close. If Nortel's management had the vision of a Matthews, Nortel would not be trading at record highs. If Cisco's management had the vision of a Matthews, Cisco would probably not be the giant that it is today. The same things can be said of Tellabs and Lucent.
The ultimate report card that be given to any company is the stock price. No matter how you look at it, Matthews and company do not have high marks. Matthews and company have not produced results for shareholders. |
