E.H.F,
For the most part, the drop has been about disk drive performance, I think. More recently, I think it's been a combination of the recently announced acquisition of Benchmarq, which is stopping the buyback of UTR stock, and the posting of earnings, which did not _exceed_ analysts' estimates. (Still, they were hardly bad at all--met analyst's estimates, were ahead of the corresponding quarter last year, and led to a record FY98--despite the disk drive debacle.)
I don't know if/how estimates by the covering analysts have been revised--haven't been following it too closely.
WDC has been their biggest customer, and other drive makers have also been important (see earlier posts in this thread.) However, the merger should reduce the importance of this dependency.
I am still very much learning, but I do think now is an excellent time to get into UTR. The merger's announced, and the worst of the earnings news should be out--I'd be surprised if more news were to arise that would depress share price much further.
Best,
Dave |
