OK, Mohan. Let's see if we get more bullish comments from the analysts today!
Brocade Has Fourth-Quarter Profit as Sales Surge (Update1) 11/29/99 3:25:00 PM
Source: Bloomberg News
(Adds analyst comment starting in 4th paragraph, market value in last paragraph.)
San Jose, California, Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Brocade Communications Systems Inc., a networking-equipment maker whose shares have risen almost 17-fold since the company went public in May, reported a fiscal fourth-quarter profit as sales surged.
Net income in the period ended Oct. 30 was $3.56 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with a loss of $3.13 million, or 17 cents, in the year-earlier period. Revenue more than quintupled to $30.1 million from $5.41 million. Earnings beat the 8-cent average estimate of analysts polled by First Call Corp.
Brocade dominates the emerging market for so-called fibre channel switches, which let powerful server computers quickly retrieve large amounts of data from storage devices. It's benefited from agreements
with International Business Machines Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp., the world's largest and third-largest computer makers, which resell Brocade's switches.
''It was a phenomenal quarter,'' said Chris Stix, an analyst at SG Cowen who rates Brocade a ''strong buy.''
The company was helped by rising sales of new products and new customers that resell its equipment. Exploding use of the Internet is spurring businesses to buy gear and storage systems that can retrieve data faster.
''They continue to dominate the market they're in, and they're executing on new product plans in a way that few young companies are capable of,'' said Stix.
Shares of Brocade rose 13 to 320 today, giving the four-year- old company a market value of $8.54 billion. The San Jose, California-based company first sold shares to the public in May at $19 apiece. It's one of the three biggest percentage gainers so far among companies that went public this year.
cnetinvestor.com |
