MONE ( $16-$13) P/E 150 see's lowered EPS of 2-3c impacted by the technology recession
siliconinvestor.com
NEW YORK, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Software design company MatrixOne Inc. (NasdaqNM:MONE - news) on Wednesday reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that rose from a year ago but warned that results would miss estimates for the first quarter and full year 2002, citing the slowing U.S economy.
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Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based MatrixOne, which makes software that allows manufacturers to collaborate with their suppliers on product design over the Web, said it posted a pro forma net income, excluding stock-based compensation charges, of $4.1 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with a pro forma net income of $1 million, or 2 cents a share in 2000.
The 11 analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call were all expecting MatrixOne to post a profit of 7 cents a share.
Including the charges, MatrixOne said it posted a net income of $3.5 million, or 7 cents a share, compared with break even in the prior year.
Revenues were up 66 percent to $41.2 million compared to $24.8 million in the prior year.
``We, like every other software company, are being impacted by the technology recession,'' Mark O'Connell, president and chief executive officer of MatrixOne told Reuters. ``We're seeing people take smaller bites and stretch them out longer, but we have not seen any deals disappear.''
MatrixOne said it lowered its revenue and earnings per share estimates for its fiscal first quarter and full year 2002.
The company said it expects to post first quarter earnings of between 2 and 3 cents a share on sequentially lower revenues of between $37 million and $39 million. For the full year 2002, MatrixOne lowered its earnings estimates to a range of between 20 cents and 30 cents a share, on revenues in the range of $185 million and $200 million.
Analysts, on average, were expecting to MatrixOne to post earnings of 5 cents a share in the first quarter 2002, with a range of between 4 and 6 cents a share, on revenues of $44.4 million, according to First Call. For 2002, the consensus estimate was for earnings of 30 cents a share on revenues of $202.35 million.
Shares of MatrixOne closed down 1.89 percent at $15.55 on the Nasdaq stock exchange ahead of the report and remained unchanged in after hours trading.
COLLABORATION THE NEW BUZZWORD
With the business-to-business bubble having all but burst, software companies, including giants such as Oracle Corp. and i2 Technologies Inc., are now rushing to adopt the term ``collaboration'' as the latest buzzword.
O'Connell cited figures from industry research firm, Gartner Group, which said the market for collaboration software is set to increase to $13.5 billion by 2004 from $3 billion in 2000.
``Recent checks with the top Fortune 2000 companies have product collaboration at or near the top of their strategic initiatives over the next three years,'' O'Connell said, adding that MatrixOne was positioned to be one of the leaders in the market alongside companies such as i2, SAP AG Agile Software Corp. (NasdaqNM:AGIL - news) and Parametric Technology Corp. (NasdaqNM:PMTC - news).
By enabling manufacturers to collaborate on product design with their suppliers and partners over the Internet, MatrixOne's software reduces the time it takes to bring products to market by between 30-50 percent, O'Connell said.
``All these companies are struggling to improve their top line revenue performance and the one thing that's going to improve that is introducing products to market faster,'' O'Connell said.
O'Connell said that bringing manufacturers and suppliers together early on in the product design phase also saves money.
If product changes need to be made after the product design has been defined, it can cost upwards of $100,000, O'Connell said. But making those changes early on in the design phase can reduce those costs to $10,000, he said. |
