Wells Fargo Van Kasper Re-Initiating Buy Rating on Informix Corporation
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Rob Tholemeier, Business Intelligence Software Analyst at Wells Fargo Van Kasper, has re-initiated a Buy rating on the shares of Informix Corporation (Nasdaq: IFMX) ($6 1/2).
Below are direct quotations from Mr. Tholemeier's research report:
-- Wednesday after the market close, Informix Corporation reported 4Q00 EPS of $0.05, versus the consensus estimate of $0.03. Total revenue was $226.8 million; total license revenue was $101.2 million; database license revenue was $82.0 million; solutions license (the newly renamed Ascential Software) revenue was $19.0 million; total service revenue was $125.7 million; net income revenue was $300,000.
-- While all of these are down year-over-year, license revenue was up 22.7% sequentially, total revenue was up 7.5% sequentially, net income improved by $80.3 million, operating expense was down 6%, and EPS improved nine cents from a loss of $0.06.
-- In our view, this quarter reflects that the company has turned the corner and is back to profits and growth.
-- Guidance was robust to say the least. The company stated expectations of a "four- to five-fold improvement in EPS" -- we forecast near the middle of that range, FY01 EPS of $0.38 versus FY00 EPS of $0.09.
-- Management said that it was also on track to split the company into two independently traded corporations as soon as market conditions permit.
-- Given the good results and positive outlook, we think that investors are likely to take a hard look at this stock, and we are therefore establishing a Buy rating on the shares of Informix Corporation.
-- We are re-establishing a short-term price target of $8, or 2.0x our FY01 revenue estimate of $1,041.0 million and 21x (which compares favorably to Sybase's multiple of 18.4x) our FY01 EPS estimate of $0.38.
-- We expect to revisit our price target as we get more details on the progress of the breakup and the general business.
Wells Fargo Van Kasper makes a market in the shares of Informix Corporation.
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SOURCE Wells Fargo & Company
CO: Wells Fargo & Company; Informix Corporation
ST: California
IN: FIN
SU: RTG
01/26/2001 11:31 EST prnewswire.com |
