Myron, thanks for the TA. PTUS has been selling off due to insider selling subsequent to the IPO. The company's fundamentals are better than the stock price. The stock price moved up on Fri. due to a competitor's woes. I believe that this co. is focusing on the Eurodollar and fits the parameters of this thread. I have prepared a report on this co. I am hoping to find other companies focusing on the Eurodollar.
PERITUS SOFTWARE SERVICES - PTUS
Website: peritus.com
Email: investor_relations@peritus.com
Peritus Software Services is a software maintenance outsourcing company. Customers include Advanced Micro Devices and NYNEX . The company is making the transition into software development with "mass change" products to help accomplish major labor-intensive system conversions. The company's primary product, AutoEnhancer/2000, modifies computers' dating functions to allow them to interpret dates after the year 1999. Peritus is developing products to handle other mass change events like the European conversion to Eurocurrency and Japan's proposed addition of digits to its telephone numbers.
PTUS was an IPO in July 1997, 4,025,000 shares were offered at $16 shares. The underwriters were Montgomery Securities, Wessels, Arnold & Henderson and H.C. Wainwright & Co., Inc. The stock was up 10 points on the first day of trading !!!! Since Dec. the stock has been under pressure due to insider selling after the 180 day lockout period elapsed subsequent to the IPO. There has been a consistent large short position on PTUS, probably based on the insider selling. viwes.com
Daily volume and price changes:
tradepbs.com
ANALYST COVERAGE:
Date Brokerage Firm Rating
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-23-98 Punk Ziegel Trading Buy
12-24-97 Cruttenden & Co. Strong Buy
12-19-97 Wessels Arnold Buy
12-15-97 Jackson Partners Buy
9-2-97 Deutsche Morgan Buy
8-11-97 Montgomery Buy
EARNINGS:
1/17/98 .11/share vs -.01/share last year and analyst expectations of .07/share, or 57% ahead of expectations!!!!! Revs increased by 77.1%
Earnings excluded the $70.8 million write off from the acquisition of Millenium Dynamics. Including the write-off, PTUS earnings are -$4.97/share. PTUS's next earnings release is due in April and the stock will be richly rewarded or heavily punished depending on the earnings increase/decrease resulting from
this acquisition.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS:
The Company is capatilizing on Y2K as an opportunity to obtain other business.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Peritus Software Services (NASDAQ:PTUS) will shift more of its reseach-and-development spending to non-year-2000 business this year in an effort to expand its long-term opportunities, Chief Financial Officer Allen Deary said Wednesday. Deary estimated that 75 percent of the company's R&D spending would go to non-year-2000 businesses after the first quarter. That would be an increase from 50 percent currently. "We continue to leverage Year 2000 as a springboard into
additional mass change, test and migration opportunities," Deary said at the NationsBanc Montgomery Securities Technology Conference. He said, however, that Peritus expected to continue adding
customers with year 2000 problems as more companies become serious about fixing problems ahead of the millenium.
Peritus opened a London office in January to increase their European exposure. Excerpt from a press release:
"We are broadening our European sales and distribution channels at a key moment in time." said Booth. "The Peritus technologies, specifically those used in the Mass Change Engine, are ideally suited to meet many of the other challenges felt keenly by European businesses. Many of these companies are seeking to establish relationships with vendors and service providers that will enable them to leverage the resources required to cope with the Year 2000, European Currency conversion, and other software evolution challenges."
peritus.com
Mar 06, 1998 (6:35 PM ET) - The Motley Fool Evening News
Information technology and software engineering services provider PRT Group (Nasdaq:PRTG - news) lost half its value today, falling $9 9/16 to close at $9 9/16 after saying it expects a fiscal Q1 net loss of about $3 million due to customer delays in starting Year 2000 projects and changes in ramp-up plans for other projects. Sales are expected to come in below the Q4 figure of $19.8 million. The earnings shortfall will amount to about a $0.16 loss per share. Analysts surveyed by First Call had been expecting earnings of $0.08 per share. Salomon Smith Barney cut its rating on the stock to "neutral" from "buy," based on a "lack of visibility and management credibility" arising primarily from the fact that management had already allocated staffing and other resources to the projects. Analysts believe the company has known since January that the projects would be pushed back, but no one bothered to mention it to investors until today. Benefiting from its rival's misfortune, Y2K services company Peritus Software (Nasdaq:PTUS - news) was up $1 3/4 to $15 5/8 today.
fnews.yahoo.com
PTUS was a featured company in last week's Cruttenden Roth Conference:
biz.yahoo.com |
