jelrod3: But alas, more bad news is undoubtedly on the way, and the price could reach single digits as holders flee the stock for better investments.
Lordy, I sure hope not, but we sure don't seem to be catching any breaks so far this year at all, do we? As of tonight, we're down slightly over 75% from the all-time high, but even if you consider mid-40s as a previously-fair valuation, we're down more than 70%. If there's any logic left in the market for this stock and this company, that ought to be enough! But emotion may take over temporarily and squeeze us all some more - sigh.
I'm not surprised, I guess, that CFO Paul Hansen is leaving. After 14 years, he's made good money, and I'm sure he doesn't need the heat now nor the prospect of facing shareholders at the August meeting. Handling the conference call in two weeks is going to be uncomfortable enough. I also wonder how much heat the institutional holders are putting on the board to shake things up in management.
My guess is that a company priority recently has been guiding the analysts' expectations down for the current and next quarter, and with Robbie Stevens reducing estimates this morning on the heels of Bear, Stearns they seem to have had some success at doing so without crushing the stock price drastically today. An earnings downgrade isn't "good news" but it's probably better than keeping expectations up during a period of very unpredictable earnings swings.
So, maybe, just maybe the reported earnings will be close to revised estimates and people will begin to think about a recovery track for revenues, earnings and stock price. I hope to hell that all the acquisition and R&D money has been spent intelligently, and that they begin to pay off pretty damn quickly.
Knowledgeable people (no, I won't elaborate, sorry, but not legally-restricted insiders) are indicating to me that things may have bottomed out, but IMHO it's probably a bit too soon to tell if this is indeed the case and when the market will come to the same conclusion. One of my biggest concerns now is what internal damage has been done in terms of lost personnel and difficulty in motivating current people and attracting new ones. |
