Thread: Here's a Bloomberg article on the speculation/rumor someone posted over to Yahoo! zoo. It's posting #148341:
Compaq Falls 8% on Speculation 1st-Quarter Sales May Fall Short
Houston, March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of Compaq Computer Corp., the
No. 1 maker of personal computers, fell 8 percent amid speculation that
first-quarter sales might fall short of analysts' expectations.
Compaq fell 2 9/16 to 29 5/16 in New York Stock Exchange trading. More
than 54 million shares changed hands, making it the third-most active stock in
U.S. markets.
There has been speculation that large corporations eased spending in the first
few months of the year, analysts said. That could hurt Compaq, which gets
much of its revenue from corporate customers. Already, Micron Technology
Inc., a maker of computer- memory chips, reported lower-than-expected
earnings because of delayed PC purchases.
``There were some rumors that there is a revenue shortfall for Compaq,' said
analyst Vadim Zlotnikov of Sanford Bernstein & Co., who rates the stock an
``outperform.' He expects sales of about $9.2 billion and earnings of 14
cents a share.
Compaq, based in Houston, declined to comment on the speculation or the
stock movement. Analysts expect profit of 16 cents a share, the average
estimate from First Call/Thomson Financial. In the year-ago quarter, the
company earned $281 million, or 16 cents, on sales of $9.42 billion.
Zlotnikov said about half of the large corporations he surveyed had a freeze
on spending for computers and services through February of this year. Many
big businesses halted new purchases late last year to focus on making sure
existing systems were ready for the year 2000 date change.
Mar/23/2000 17:02
Lynn |
