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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy?

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To: TTOSBT who wrote (21101)3/14/1998 5:47:00 PM
From: Don Earl  Read Replies (2) of 42771
 
Hi TTOSBT,

Well.....25 cents doesn't seem like much. Not even enough to ride the bus. Right? On a $10 stock that's a loss of 2.5%, about the same as the Dow dropping 215 points.

Novell is not for sale. Every company that has been mentioned in all the rumors for the year that I have been following the stock have said they don't want it. Hopes of a buy out are the last line of defense to justify a bad investment. People that invest in companies with a history of revenue growth don't even think about it.

There were a lot of block trades going across at the bid a few months ago when it broke below $7. Does that mean that all the "smart money" bailed out just before a 50% rise in price?

Novell spends $1-$2 million a year on legal fees in the normal course of business. I doubt the recent law suits will put much additional drain on those expenses. Any rewards paid would be years in the future. The danger of the suits lies in the risk of an outside audit and the impact it would have on the stock price if Novell were forced to restate earnings. That 3 Com is being sued by this law firm and had to restate earnings as the result of a federal audit, should offer some clues. It looks like the suit against 3 Com was filed on Dec 5 and the restatement of earnings came out on March 5. Three months. 3 Coms numbers didn't look that bad. I don't think Novell will come out that easy.

While on the topic of bears, it might be worth a look at what the company insiders have been doing with NOVL. Novells lawyer, treasurer, and CFO have not only NOT been participating in employee stock purchasing programs, they have been selling whatever stock they already owned. Following insider trading patterns can be at least as tricky as trying to figure out block trades, but right or wrong I tend to put more weight on the trading patterns of a companies financial officers than any other insider.

If the Dow dropped 650 points in a week people would be concerned. In terms of percentage movement that's what you're looking at for NOVL since news of the law suit and the "resignation" of the CFO hit the market. NOVL generally tends to move slow and the news is too fresh to be fully reflected in the stock price.

Regards,

Don
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