Mighty Mizzou, Get serious!!!
Here is a bloomberg.com story with a comment from an analyst.
quote.bloomberg.com
Nortel Has 4th-Qtr Profit as Sales Surge; Plans 2-for-1 Split
Nortel Has 4th-Qtr Profit as Sales Surge; Plans 2-for-1 Split
Brampton, Ontario, Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Nortel Networks
Corp., North America's No. 2 phone-equipment maker, reported a
fourth-quarter profit as customers bought more of its fiber-optic
gear. The company set a 2-for-1 stock split.
Net income was $423 million, or 30 cents a share, compared
with a loss of $332 million, or 26 cents, in the year-ago period.
Excluding costs for acquisitions, Nortel said it had a profit of
$761 million, or 55 cents a share, up from $486 million, or 36
cents. Sales rose 21 percent to $6.99 billion from $5.77 billion.
Companies that run data networks are speeding up plans to
boost capacity with the fastest optical gear as traffic doubles
every six to nine months. That's benefiting Nortel, the biggest
seller of fiber-optic equipment, at the expense of rival Lucent
Technologies Inc., which failed to ship a comparable product in
the recent quarter.
``Lucent said competitors had a chance to make hay of its
product delays,' said Patrick Houghton, a Sutro & Co. analyst
who rates Nortel a ``buy.' ``Nortel did exactly that.'
Nortel reported its profit of 55 cents a share under
Canadian accounting rules.
The Brampton, Ontario-based company was expected to earn 45
cents on that basis excluding acquisition costs, the average
estimate of analysts in a First Call/Thomson Financial poll.
Per share amounts reflect the payment of preferred
dividends.
Nortel shares rose 2 3/16 to 102 5/8 on the New York Stock
Exchange before the release. They climbed to 105 after the
report. The shares have more than tripled in the past year.
Nortel said it plans to seek approval from shareholders and
regulators to split its stock two for one. It's the second 2-for-
1 split declared in the past six months.
NYSE/AMEX delayed 20 min. NASDAQ delayed 15 min.
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