27-Oct-05 07:58 ET In Play Lucent downgraded to Underperform at BMO Nesbitt (LU) 2.93 : BMO Nesbitt downgrades LU to Underperform from Mkt Perform, following below expectations Q3 results, citing the low quality of earnings; saying ex pension income they expect the co will only earn about 5 cents a share. They also note that the guidance provided on the call indicates that rev growth is slowing and that pension income will be less in 2006, and the underlying operating performance of the co is more transparent.
27-Oct-05 07:25 ET In Play As technology gains, Lucent's light may be dimming - NY Times (LU) 2.93 : According to the NY Times, speculation about Lucent's long-term outlook, and even its survival as an independent co, gathered steam yesterday after it released earnings for the 4Q. Profits plunged 69%, with sales growing just 1%. Worse, sales in the wireless group, the healthiest part of the co, fell 7.1%, a sign that Lucent's biggest clients, including Sprint and Verizon Wireless, are almost finished building out their current generation of cellular networks. The co's forecasts for F'06 do not signal a turnaround either. Lucent expects to eliminate about 2K more jobs, with sales growing in the "midsingle digits" and gross profit margins dipping a couple of percentage points. "There's not much in the way of rev growth and their margins are not going up," said Tim Daubenspeck, of Pacific Crest. "That's not a particularly good story."
27-Oct-05 06:34 ET In Play Lucent downgraded to Hold at Deutsche Bank; tgt cut to $2.25 (LU) 2.93 : Deutsche Bank downgrades LU to Hold from Buy and cuts their tgt to $2.25 from $2.50, following Q4 results. Firm says they continue to remain uninspired by the co's overall performance as they believe the co faces a daunting challenge of growing its U.M.T.S. business beyond Cingular. Firm also says that their key question for the co still remains earnings quality, noting that stripping out $0.02 of tax items this qtr and net pension credits of $185 mln or $0.04 per share, equates to EPS from operations of $0.02, essentially flat sequentially |
