Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Aspect Telecommunications (ASPT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob Trocchi who wrote (1893)	10/14/2000 2:43:14 AM
From: Herschel Rubin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2018

Motley Fool has a good article on Siebel (No, I'm not hyping SEBL as I have no holdings in SEBL), indicating that SEBL should produce decent earnings (Oct 24) because the CRM sector is doing well: fool.com For those here who may not recall, ASPT partners with SEBL, so SEBL's well-being may often serve as an indicator for ASPT. Here is an excerpt pertinent to CRM from the Fool Article: "Wall Street consensus estimates are calling for revenue growth of 100% and earnings per share of $0.11 for the quarter. I believe Siebel will beat the revenue estimate by 10% or more because of continued strong demand for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. The hypergrowth in Siebel's top line will likely be the major contributor to beating earnings estimates, not profit-margin expansion. The CRM market is still growing rapidly, and securing market share is critical. Firms must sacrifice margins for growth during this stage of the product life cycle, and Siebel is clearly using this strategy effectively. Siebel leads the CRM space, with 21% market share. Through organic growth and acquisitions, I believe 30% market share is possible to achieve in the next two or three years. " I just looked at SEBL's chart and it is remarkable how it is one of the FEW Tech/Internet stocks that has been unfazed by the Sept-Oct downturn in the market, so perhaps the CRM sector is not so bad off after all. SEBL's chart: finance.yahoo.com Perhaps there was a slow July/August for ASPT, but if customers need to have e-CRM systems in place by Thanksgiving/Christmas, I would assume they may have scheduled their ASPT e-CRM portal software procurement by Sept 30th. We should keep in mind that an e-CRM software license purchase on September 30th only leaves about 6 weeks for ASPT's customer to install & test before their e-commerce operations would have to be ready for the heavy e-Thanksgiving shopping weekend. In other words, it is VERY likely that most of ASPT's customers interested in supplying solid e-CRM for the Holidays will have bought their software during the September quarter! Of course, gov't customers would be unaffected by the Holiday sales seasonality cycle. But for gov't customers, management--seeking to restore credibility--could have offered incentives to close sales by Sept 30th as well, so the quarter very well could have been back-loaded with some decent sales coming in. Because of the foregoing logic, I'm going to guess the company will surprise to the upside on October 18th.