Here's the news for anyone who didn't see it.
Monday September 8 2:45 PM EDT
Raptor says 1998 estimates "conservative"
BURLINGAME, Calif., Sept 8 (Reuter) - Raptor Systems Inc Chairman Robert Steinkrauss said Monday
that analysts' estimates for the company's 1998 results are ``conservative.''
Steinkrauss told Reuters after a presentation to investors at a Technologic Partners Internet conference here
that analysts estimate the company will earn about $0.46 a share next year on revenues of about $45 million.
``The 1998 numbers are conservative,'' he said.
Raptor, which markets integrated network security software and services, is expected to earn $0.35 a share
on revenues of around $28 million for 1997, he said.
He said the company's objective was to achieve these 1997 estimates.
Raptor currently receives more than 90 percent of its revenues from the sale of firewalls, which are used to
protect corporate networks from intrusion by computer hackers through the Internet or other networks.
Underscoring the strength of the market for Raptor's products, Steinkrauss said, was less-than-expected
price erosion in the firewall arena.
The Raptor chairman said in his presentation that the company's average selling price for its firewall
products in the second quarter was around $5,200, down about $300 from the preceding quarter.
He said afterward that this represented an annual rate of decline in price of 15-20 percent, well below the
30-40 percent the company had projected a year ago.
He said about half of the decline was due to a shift in mix to lower-end products rather than any specific
pricing pressure in the industry.
``I don't think any of the firewall vendors have really drastically reduced their price (based on) what we see
to date,'' he said in his presentation.
Steinkrauss said he expects newly announced security products that provide security for mobile computer
users and offer centralized access control, due to be on sale later this year, will account for roughly 21
percent of revenues in 1998.
Services will account for around nine percent, and firewall products will comprise the rest, he said. |
