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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (35136)	5/10/2000 5:15:00 PM
From: John F. Dowd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

BK: Same story as CSCO yesterday - they are getting whipped in after hrs. and this will precipitate yet another ugly day tomorrow. JFD

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (35136)	5/10/2000 6:36:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

**PLEASE READ THE 2ND BOLDED SECTION** Applied Materials 2nd-Qtr Profit Rises; Shares Fall (Update3) By Cesca Antonelli Santa Clara, California, May 10 (Bloomberg) -- Applied Materials Inc., the world's biggest semiconductor-equipment maker, said fiscal second-quarter profit more than tripled as chipmakers added machines to meet surging demand. Applied shares fell as much as 9.6 percent after the company said profit from operations rose to $454 million, or 55 cents a share, from net income of $143.3 million, or a split-adjusted 17 cents, a year earlier. Earnings matched the average estimate from analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial, though they missed forecasts on the Internet that were as high as 60 cents. Sales in the quarter ended April 30 climbed 87 percent to $2.19 billion as chipmakers such as Intel Corp. spent more to make semiconductors that power Internet and communications devices. Orders, a measure of future sales, rose to $2.93 billion, in line with analysts' estimates of $2.8 billion to $3 billion. ``The quarter went very well,'' said Louis Kokernak, senior equity strategist at Martin Capital Advisors in Austin, Texas, which owns Applied shares. ``The next three or four quarters look good.'' Including a gain and charges associated with its $2.8 billion purchase of Etec Systems Inc., net income was $468.9 million, or 54 cents a share, in the recent quarter. Year-ago results have been restated to include Etec. Applied's charges for the Etec acquisition were related to paying investment bankers and changing Etec's accounting system. The Santa Clara, California-based company's shares, which have gained 34 percent this year, fell as low as 76 1/2 after the report. Applied was the most actively traded U.S. stock after markets closed. The shares had slipped 6 to 84 5/8 in regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market before the release. Third-Quarter Forecast The company will earn 64 cents to 68 cents a share in the fiscal third quarter -- more than the current 62-cent First Call estimate -- on revenue of $2.6 billion to $2.7 billion, Chief Financial Officer Joe Bronson said on a conference call with analysts. He said orders in the July quarter will be more than $3 billion. ``The market continues to outpace all previous estimates,'' Bronson said. ``We expect orders to be robust for the remainder of the fiscal year.'' Bronson expects chipmakers to boost capital spending 53 percent this year and sees them building 13 new plants in 2000, with 16 more planned next year. Demand keeps climbing for everything from communications chips to computer memories, he said. When Applied completes construction of another building at its Austin, Texas, campus, the company will have capacity enough to support $12 billion to $13 billion in annual sales, Bronson said. In the next six months, executives will start discussing how to build a $20 billion company, he said. Orders by Region During the second quarter, orders from Europe grew faster than any other region, to 14 percent of bookings. Sales of business and consumer telecommunications gear is rising there. Taiwan and North America each accounted for 25 percent of orders, with Japan growing faster than expected to 15 percent of orders. Seven customers placed orders valued at more than $100 million each, compared with six in the first quarter, Bronson said. Backlog at the end of the quarter was a record $3.18 billion. Gross margin, or the percentage of sales left after subtracting production costs, widened to 50.1 percent from 46.3 percent a year ago.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (35136)	5/10/2000 7:16:00 PM
From: Fred Levine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

The drop in the stock was, IMO, due to unrealistic expectations. AMAT met the expectations, which were very high, but could not match the masturbatory fantasies that have developed. In a previous post, I stated this and expected that the share price would drop when exposed to reality. I also predicted that time will once again match the expectations to real performance, which, in AMAT's case, is very high. I'm keeping my bloomers on, and expect to get rewarded. fred