WBM- What Dell should do: There should be a statement from the company...something to the effect: "Although it is still too early to know fiscal results for the quarter, given that a large % of our sales for the quarter are backloaded, there is a good possibility that we will make our number for the quarter (or a good possibility that we will NOT make our number for the quarter; However we anticipate that the miss will be no more than .01 EPS, at worse)...For 4th quarter, fiscal '99.....We are anticipating revenue growth between xx% and xx% for the quarter, and we are anticipating earnings growth between xx% and xx% for the quarter...again, because of the back-loading of sales for quarter (a regular quarterly phenomena..it is impossible for us to know exact results at this pt.)
MORE SIGNIFICANT, however, we anticipate strong growth in the year ahead. 2000 will be a super (use your adjective) year for growth in PC sales. A recent survey of 75 CIO's showed that over HALF anticipate purchasing most of their equipment from Dell...more than the other 3 largest corporate vendors combined...Furthermore, due to the launch of Windows 2000, Intel (blah, blah) and the general global recovery, we are anticipating between 35-40% revenue, earnings, and EPS growth for the fiscal year 2000. We continue to believe that the stock is undervalued, relative to the S&P 500, and other technology growth stocks...and we challenge the investment community to compare our results and future growth path to other........"
This is rough...but you get the idea.....Something like this would do wonders, IMO....I think Dell should release such a statement now, vs. in mid-February.... |
