Heard on the Street August 16, 2001
Nasdaq Companies' Losses
Erase Five Years of Earnings
By STEVE LIESMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Mounting losses have wiped out all the corporate profits from the technology-stock boom of the late 1990s, which could make the road back to the previous level of profitability longer and harder than previously estimated.
The massive losses reported over the most recent four quarters by companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market have erased five years' worth of profits, according to figures from investment-research company Multex.com that were analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.
Winners and losers
Nasdaq companies with the largest profit or loss over the most recent reported 23 quarters. Figures shown are combined earnings for those 23 quarters excluding extraordinary items.
Profit (in millions)
Intel $37,567.00
Microsoft 34,567.00
Oracle 12,332.33
Dell Computer 7,444.23
Cisco Systems 7,036.08
Loss (in millions)
JDS Uniphase -$51,670.66
VeriSign -15,730.43
Excite At Home -10,427.53
Nextel Communications -6,217.00
CMGI -5,082.66
*2001 data combine the net income, excluding extraordinary items, from the most recently reported four quarters. These can be for the 12-month period ended in March through July, depending on when a company last reported. 2000 data combine the next most recently reported four quarters and so on. 1996 data include only the trailing three quarters.
Note: Data cover 4,042 companies. Figures exclude 194 companies listed on Nasdaq that have reported no financial data since Feb. 2001.
Sources: Multex.com; The Wall Street Journal
Put another way, the companies currently listed on the market that symbolized the New Economy haven't made a collective dime since the fall of 1995, when Intel introduced the 200-megahertz computer chip, Bill Clinton was in his first term in office and the O.J. Simpson trial obsessed the nation. "What it means is that with the benefit of hindsight, the late '90s never happened," says Robert Barbera, chief economist at Hoenig & Co.[SNIP]
interactive.wsj.com
And that's why quoting the P/E of the Naz is nonsense.
Gottfried |
