Agree that demand will heat up for testing and remediation tools in January 1999 and even earlier in fall of this year. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that Seec make itself much better known than it is now. Its customer list includes Keane, Unisys, IBM. Yes, they've been sending out mailings. Yes, they've taken a big ad, though from what I've heard a rather anemic one, in Computer World. Yes, they've shown up at a few Y2K conferences. Yet, they still appear to remain an obscure little software company in Pittsburgh.
Their stock is easily manipulated. Providing critical insider information to some associates in the markets is part of their gestalt. The action of the past four months proves both these points. They posted .17 vs .12 eps at end of first quarter and their stock continued to drop. But note that the day after the earnings announcement the stock first ran up from 14 to 15 1/2 on increased volume. Then it ran right back down and never stopped its southbound journey. Recently, the day before it lost 50% of its value, the stock bumped up from 10 to 12+ on 4 times the usual volume. Next day, trading stopped, announcement of zero earnings was made and stock drops from 12 to 6.
I have no position in the stock at this time. I've followed Seec for 6 months. Everything about them and the business environment they address suggests that they ought to be worth a great deal more. I have two points to make: 1. If they intend to profit from what's left of the Y2K period (and it will extend to after the year 2000 as well), they must become far better known to business and government than they are now -- that's a PR, marketing, advertising, etc. matter and
2. They need to get their act together with respect to the investment community. Hearing what some of the analysts had to say to Ravi Koka in the conference call with analysts after the 50% drop was not music to the ears. |
