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Technology Stocks : ASTX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Goolie2 who wrote (235)	6/18/1999 4:16:00 AM
From: Toby	Respond to of 275

I think the secondary was to permit ASTEX to continue to grow by acquisition. Their cash reserves had gotten a little low, and with the slump it wasn't clear how soon operating cash flow would replenish those reserves. I think it is important to ASTX and we stockholders that ASTX acquire similar firms to broaden their product base and businesses to further leverage their core rf and microwave competencies.

To: Goolie2 who wrote (235)	6/19/1999 1:47:00 PM
From: Albert Mou	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275

Some info may be worth to note: 1) 1998, AMAT contributed roughly 40% to ASTX's revenue. So, aboout $5 million of last quarter revenue came from AMAT. Worst to the worst, if this $142 supply contract is a complete replacement to the old one, then AMAT would averagely award ASTX quarter revenue around $10 million. So, there is $5 million bump in quarter revenue just from AMAT. That is significant in comparison with last quarter's revenue of $20.9 million. 2) 1997 gross profit of 36%. 1998 dropped to 34% primarily because of 4th quarter downturn. The latest quarter gross profit improved back to 34% from the preceeding quarter of 27% primarily due to manufacturing facility consolidation and volume improvement. I would assume this gross profit in uptrend and eventually come back to 36%. 3) In most of 1998's quarters, ASTX's quarter earning was in 14-18 cents range. The latest quarter took an unusual high tax rate, almost 50%, which I don't know the reason of it. Otherwise, the earning could be in teens. 1.6 book-to-bill ratio seems to be able to bring the quarter sales to new historical high. Consequently, the stock price deserves a new high.