To All, here's another "analysis" of today's earnings announcement.
The Night Watch: Dell Slips After Hours on Earnings
By Eric Gillin
Editorial Assistant
2/10/00 8:21 PM ET
Dell (DELL:Nasdaq - news) was soggy after releasing earnings. It wasn't flooded by losses, or surfing in gains. It was squishy and sloppy and only slightly lower.
Dell announced earnings of 16 cents a share, a penny better than the restated First Call/Thomson Financial estimate. Ahead of the release, shares in the boxmaker were only slightly higher. Then the sentiment turned, driving the stock lower on Island ECN. It was last off 3/4 to 37 15/16 on 580,000 shares.
Orders in Dell have been a fairly heavy 1,880, which means that the interest is there. The matching bids aren't. Sell orders are roughly double buy orders, with the vast majority of sellers above 38.
The original analyst estimate of 21 cents a share was scrapped shortly after Dell warned about its fourth quarter a few weeks ago. After the warning, Dell's market performance has been fairly lackluster. Discounting today's optimistic gain of 3 15/64, or 9.1%, to 38 51/64, Dell has dropped 5.6% since Jan. 26.
It's deja vu all over again. Dell warned about its third quarter as well, missing original expectations by 2 cents and finishing in line with revisions. The first half of the year was also partly cloudy, with second-quarter earnings the silver lining to tepid first-quarter earnings.
Along with the earnings, Dell made a bunch of other announcements regarding its fourth quarter. Net profits grew 3% to $436, inline with lowered expectations. Revenue grew 31% to $6.8 billion, which was good but not good enough. That number came in at lowered expectations, but was not inline with Dell's prior performance, which usually had a revenue growth rate of 50%.
Dell's international and Internet revenues were up. Asia revenues rose 56% while European revenues inched 8% higher. The company also announced that nearly 50% of its revenue came through Dell.com, its e-tailing arm.
Guess investors weren't cheered about the earnings report.
Stock Bull
Hope Niles, et al can talk the stock up tomorrow. If not, IMO, we are going back down.
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