Patience, absolutely -- and interested parties. I guess you and I are the choir here.
I really hope Asante Sales and Marketing take advantage of their superior products and cut deals with stores and maybe a big manufacturer such as Dell, which sells all manner of peripherals, too. I see LinkSys junk in CompUSA et al. -- Asante's stuff is much better but has almost no store presence I could find.
Wireless is starting to take off for the SOHO market and Asante has a wireless version of their FriendlyNet router now. Their product design and support are stellar, so I wonder if their Sales team needs a jolt. Maybe the CEO needs to hit the road and sell to the biggies in the manner Scott McNealy used to at Sun years ago when he'd personally visit big customer sites to help close big deals. Who knows....
My Mantra:
There are myriad niche companies but not many with low price-to-sales ratios and killer products. Asante's .20 price-to-sales ratio is extremely low. It's enough to make a grown man spam (just KIDDING!).
I mean, even Juniper after its long stock fall over the last 8 months still has a pretty high price-to-sales ratio of 17-to-1 (I should have shorted when it was 170-to-1!!).
Counter example:
Lernout & Hauspie had great products in their Dragon Systems software and a low price-to-sales ratio before all hell broke loose and arrests were made of their flaky, stupid, criminal management (not an exaggeration).
Without really knowing Asante's management better, I can't tell what darkness lurks there, but from my excellent dealings with their products, support people and web site, at least part of their management team must be very good.
The risk is there, but the promise is, too. I think it's a small financial risk to go long at pennies per share. |
