A few more items of note:
1.) Jeff Vinik (ex-fund manager of Fidelity Magellan, now runs own shop) reported on 6/30/97 that he owned 328,500 shares of SWRT, all bought in that quarter. This gave him 4.7 %, and made him the number two outside holder. He's considered pretty sharp, so this is a good sign. Of course, he's also known as quite a trader, so it's possible he is out already.
2.) A couple of recent Form 4 insider sales were filed. No big deal. More interestingly, the CFO bought 2,000 shares at $13 on 8/17/97. It's getting pretty hard to find any insider buys these days (especially in the software companies), so I was very happy to see this. And it's all the better that it's the guy going over the numbers that's out there buying stock. Very positive sign, IMO.
3.) Spoke with a friend who works directly with the product back at my old job. Things are going well. They are about to move to the 3 tier version, and performance is even better. For reference, this help desk has 3 locations, Arizona, New Jersey, and Michigan, with about 600 technicians total. Actually, the total may be higher, but I forgot to ask the current number. The goal is about 1000 techs, and I believe a site in Las Vegas is being added in the near future. So this is a fairly complex setup.
4.) I had a talk with a person from a company that was in the market for a help desk product recently. SWRT's was one of the ones they looked at, but they decided on something else. SWRT's was a little more than they needed. She said the surprising thing was that SWRT was not willing to move on price at all. Which leads me to believe SWRT is in no danger of missing it's quarter. I'd think if they were in danger of missing their estimates, they'd be out there bargaining. For reference on what that's like, go read the SCOP thread.. |
