Excerpted from recent Smith Barney review of Box Hill which mentions NTAP:
When we analyze other companies in the storage subsystems business, we find a startling split in valuations. As a universe of disk array companies, we examined Ciprico, EMC Corporation, MTI Technology, Network Appliance, and Procom Technologies. On the average, these shares closed on August 28 at a forward twelve months' earnings per share multiple of 23.5, according to our calculations. The group is clearly split between high-flying stocks like Network Appliance and EMC, and those that are falling behind, such as MTI Technology, Procom, and Ciprico. EMC closed at a forward 12 multiple of 31 and Network Appliance at 50, while the other three closed at an average multiple of 12. All three of the companies with lagging multiples fell short of the street estimates last quarter, while the leaders exceeded estimates by at least two cents. The lagging stocks also endured significant downward revisions in earnings per share estimates last quarter. |
