First call is now 3.6, as of June 2, 97. If was 4.1 on 4/21/97, so it
has been inching down. I don't know if 1/2 point on this scale is enough
to get excited about, but it could be a trend. From what I've read lately,
analysts are the last ones to go negative on a stock, but when they do
it means that most of the sell pressure is already gone. A year ago, Corel
was at $13 (US). Any analyst who recommended corel then would likely
not be too enthused today. The fact is that corel hasn't made any
profit in a while. They made $11 million in profit in 1991 on sales of
$46 million, compared to a loss in 1996 on sales of $334 million. However,
that's really the good news to investors right now, since they are probably
at bottom. The question of course is, where do they go from here?
I believe Corel is positioned right now for a dramatic increase in sales
AND profits. Revenues are growing very quickly. They are investing.
It would have been easy to turn a good profit last quarter by cutting
advertizing and R&D, but Corel is obviously committed to the long term.
They have good revenue generators now with Suite 8, Draw, and Ventura.
The Java Suite will most likely be huge, but that depends on the
technology. If the second tier companies behind MS and Intel don't
blow this once in a decade opportunity (NC's w/java) I believe Corel
will be in an enviable position.
I hope you'll excuse me getting up on my soap box, I could be way off
track, but I can say that my money is where my mouth is, so if I am
wrong, I'll get some painful feedback from the market.
sincerely,
Irv |
