Linda,
Thanks for the CC #. I listened and from the view of an ignorant investor (I am strictly an amateur with a POOR record on any stock related to storage :-( ), it sounded like the poor performance for this quarter will be rectified and the numbers they were giving on sales sounded very positive. Certainly the STK people sounded very optimistic that they will correct the problems, even though they agree that they definitely would not, or at least were unlikely, to hit the same earnings for 99 as 98.
For the record, I bought STK back in 95 or 96 when it was around $18 (pre-split), I then sold pieces off as it went up and sold all of my position off just before it split. I have repurchased at 27, 36, 38, and 29; so I am definitely behind right now, but I am trying to decide if we are headed down more or if the worst news is behind us. I really was surprised by the magnitude of the shortfall in earnings this last quarter, which goes to show that when a stock is dropping for reasons I don't know or understand, one should WAIT until one knows at least something as to the rumors of what is going on.
That said, can anyone make an argument as to why we have not seen the worst here yet, i.e., do people see additional downside risk? After the conference call, my feeling is to try to buy some more in the $18 range. It sounds like there won't be additional shocks to drop much below that and that there should be mostly good news for the next few quarters of them fixing the poor execution of the first quarter. That was a major point made in the CC, i.e., that the problem was with poor execution on STK's part, not due to a bad plan. That would be another interesting area for comment if someone on this thread has some points as to the correctness of STK's plan. The analysts' questions didn't sound angry or very irritated considering we have stock that has basically been halved from its recent highs with what seemed to me a blindside warning (well, it blindsided me, but that's easy.......)
Donald |
