djane, Gary and thread:
From IR this morning:
Anyway, regarding the 10-20%....to be honest, I didn't hear the exact context of the question (whether he was talking about a particular part of the business or what), but the analyst estimate for top line growth (revenue) for 1998 is about 1.4 billion. [For the record, '97 sales of $1.167 vs. '98 analyst forecast of $1.4 billion is a 19.96572% gain. That remains in my mind as conservative, as we have heard the analyst say. So, our CEO did not drop a bomb on this one. He merely gave a range that had the current estimates as the high end. That is being conservative, just like Michael has probably guided him to be.] We are comfortable with that (as comfortable as we can be at this point given that these estimates are forward-looking).
As far as 1999 goes, we have not given analyst guidance yet. However, we would be surprised if we did not exceed 20% top line growth on a year over year basis. [Can you also guess this too will be conservative?]
As you know, one of our top priorities are obtaining consistent performance quarter-over-quarter, what we don't want to have happen is for expectations to get ahead of themselves.
In my opinion, we are continuing to see a company that will not take any risk in forward statements due to the injury caused last time they did.
As to today's action, we are being given a buyer's market due to the holiday sellers. Tuesday should be great. I am turning my screen off, because, as usual, I am fully committed and don't have any cash to take advantage of the markets current gift giving mood. If you got cash, today is your day. Go stock shopping.
IMHO, Dennis |
