Michael...The last trade to go through on the NYSE was 47 1/16. My bet is that what the final settlement will show, darn it. Haven't seen this posted yet. $0.05 of earnings was from a benefit in reduced tax rates.
Steve
[B] Compaq shares dn after Q4 earnings beat consensus but don't excite [.21760]
By Andrew Simons, Bridge News
San Francisco--Jan 27--Though Compaq announced consensus-beating earnings
this morning, Wall Street analysts were unexcited by the results. After opening
up more than 3%, the shares fell back by midmorning and have been down about 1%
much of the day.
* * *
"The earnings were not much of a surprise," said David Wu of ABN Amro Inc.
Wu said the only news that came out of Compaq's conference call with analysts
this morning was that the company benefited to the tune of 5 cents per share
from a significantly lower tax rate.
Compaq's results didn't impress lay investors either, as gauged by an online
discussion today on the Motleyfool.com Web site. There, 1 person speculated that
Compaq's announcement Tuesday that it would spin off its AltaVista search engine
was aimed at putting a brighter face on today's lackluster earnings news.
Compaq announced sales of $10.9 billion for the fourth quarter, an increase
of 48% compared with sales reported for the fourth-quarter 1997. After-tax
profits for the quarter were $758 million or 43c per share, beating Street
estimates of 37c per share. Gross margins improved by a point and a half from
the third quarter to 26.4%.
Operating expenses declined sequentially both in absolute dollars and as a
percent of revenue, ending the quarter at 18% versus 23% for the third quarter.
Cash remained was at $4.1 billion, while inventory turns increased to 15.9
versus the 12.4 reported in the third quarter, and days sales outstanding
improved by 2 days to 56. Return on invested capital grew from 7.5% reported in
the third quarter to 38.6%. End
Bridge News, tel: (415) 835-7647
Send comments to Internet address: equity@bridge.com
[symbols:US;CPQ]
Jan-27-1999 11:54 GMT
Symbols:
US;CPQ
Source [B] BridgeNews Global Markets
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