av, This is from Briefing.com 12:50 ET ******
MACROMEDIA INC. (MACR) 15 1/2 +1 3/16. Shares of developer of software for digital media creation and delivery are rebounding today after running into an air pocket in the past couple of weeks. Last night this software maker posted a fiscal Q1 net of $0.07 a share, two cents better than the First Call estimate, reversing year-ago loss of $0.03 a share. Impressive were the gains made in sales as revenues increased 18% from a year-ago to $32.3 million, and 7.6% on a sequential basis. Gross margins also expanded from 83% in the year-ago period to 90% helped greatly by sales in its core software products. The company was also able to buck the negative trend in international markets, generating 43% from outside North America, up from 40% in the prior quarter. The numbers also support earnings expectations for the rest of the year, given that the company is well on track to earn $0.33 a share in fiscal 1999, versus year-ago profit of $0.04 a share. Accordingly, the better-than-expected quarterly results has prompted Merrill Lynch to upgrade the stock from a near-term "neutral" to "accumulate," while Volpe Brown continues to rate the stock a "buy" with a price target of $22 a share. In fact, as Web-based products become a larger portion of its future product offerings, Macromedia should be in a good position to capitalize on the growth that is currently taking place on the Internet. If so, then top and bottom line results should be greatly enhanced in future quarters, especially as their products become more commonly used.
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