Judy,
In response to you question about SAP vs. ORCL see:
SAP 1998 EPS rises 14%; sales up 41%
By Suzanne Miller, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:54 AM ET Jan 26, 1999
NewsWatch
WALLDORF (CBS.MW) -- Germany's SAP AG, the world's biggest
provider of client/server business software, on Tuesday said earnings
per
share rose 14 percent to $6.00 -- which was better than the average 12
percent rise many analysts had been expecting.
SAP's shares rose as much as 3 percent after it
released its full-year results. Meanwhile, net profit
for the year rose 14 percent to $627 million, while
sales for the fourth quarter rose 18 percent to
$1.54 billion. For the year, revenues rose 41
percent to $5 billion.
The company implied that the results would have
been even better had it not been for currency
fluctuations and for a $119 million shortfall in
software sales for Japan. Currency volatility carved
about 4 percentage points off revenue figures.
In Japan, SAP (SAP) said it has restructured its
operations and that it's "confident that the accuracy
and quality of sales forecasts will improve
substantially." SAP also paid $28.3 million to
improve its accounting in Russia.
During the year, SAP hired 6,500 new employees,
which it said will help it to roughly double sales in
three year's time.
It also expects sales for the year to rise between 20-25 percent for
1999,
and for its profit margin to rise as much as 1 percentage point. <<<<<<
My hunch is that SAP has been severely marked down due to industry weakness. I've been buying SAP around the $30 level and see the potential for an easy double this year. It's tested the lows twice recently and has held. I understand there's a hatchet piece in Forbes coming out Mon. I consider that bullish, they are usually at least 6 months behind the curve.
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