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

To: Ram Seetharaman who wrote (323)	5/1/2000 5:18:00 PM
From: Ram Seetharaman	Respond to of 376

Monday May 1 5:05 PM ET Mentor Graphics Profits Soar Past Forecasts PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Mentor Graphics Corp., a maker of software to test semiconductor designs, on Monday reported first-quarter results that far surpassed analyst expectations, spurred by a reduction in costs. Mentor (NasdaqNM:MENT - news) said that for the quarter net income was $10.4 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $8.37 million, or 13 cents. Sales rose 4.5 percent to $128.1 million from $122.6 million. Analysts had forecast the company to earn 9 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial. Wilsonville, Ore.-based Mentor said that it ended the first quarter with a record backlog of orders as bookings rose 15 percent from a year ago. The company said also in January that bookings in the fourth quarter had hit record levels. ``We continue to see strength across our business as customers move to the next-generation design tools we offer,'' said Walden Rhines, president and chief executive of Mentor in a statement. Mentor's better-than-expected results were driven mainly by a 28 percent reduction in system and software costs. That drove the company's gross margin, or percentage of revenue left after subtracting product costs, to 79.1 percent, adding about 5 cents to its per-share earnings. Mentor shares rose 2, or 15 percent, to 15- 1/8 on the Nasdaq. The company reported results after the close of regular U.S. trading.