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Non-Tech : Ashton Technology (ASTN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Candle stick who wrote (2719)	9/30/1999 3:43:00 PM
From: Dr. Seuss	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4443

Talk about reading with blinders on....did you get to this part of the story? But there are plenty of signs that the stock will fall further. For example, the company is trading about 100 times its trailing sales figure. Also, it?s not a good omen that the stock fell on a day it issued two press releases and the Nasdaq Composite had a 1.5% gain. The lack of correlation between the market index and Ashton's stock was not encouraging. In addition, providers of electronic trading systems have been pressured by fierce competition in the marketplace. Ashton's recent arrangements with its eVWAP system are a positive, but at this point, they?re not significant enough to factor into the company's income statement. The company lost $2.8 million, or $0.13 per share in its June 30 quarter, compared to a loss of $1.8 million or $0.21 per share in the same quarter a year earlier. But don't be fooled by the apparent improvement in the loss per share figure. That can be explained by a three-fold increase in the number of shares outstanding this past year. Revenue did grow by almost 80% in the quarter to about $800,000, but selling, general, and administrative expenses rose 65% above the level in the year-ago quarter. In addition, Ashton's capitalization has not improved much despite an infusion of cash on the balance sheet from issuance of preferred shares on its subsidiaries, Gomez Advisors and Universal Trading Technologies Corp. The $10 million in cash should last the company for another year, assuming the pace of the recent losses continues. The Gomez preferreds are set up in a way that makes the subsidiary look like it will go public in the future. If not, Ashton has rights to redeem the stock down the line.