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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yaacov who wrote (161887)	10/7/2000 10:00:23 AM
From: Meathead	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 176387

Re: But what is it then? Why the company is disappointing Q after Q? Isn't there problem N. America? Yaacov, it's really very simple. Dell is disappointing only because of where they set expectations, not because their business is weak. Had they properly managed expectations, say promised 25% growth for the year, we would be looking at potentially hitting 27% -- an upside surprise -- and the stock would be behaving much much differently even in this bear market. Growth is slowing and that's not a surprise to anyone from the average joe to wall street professionals. What is a surprise is how poorly Dell has handled managing expectations as their business matured. From what I hear, management is shell shocked. They did not believe that their stock could be so decimated because of slight adjustments to revenue forecasts when the business is healthy, sound and very profitable. They badly mis-calculated investor sentiment and the power of disappointment. Hopefully, this will turn out to be the final stage of denial for them and they have truly learned their lesson. They have set expectations for a potentially weak Q4 yet there are signs that the PC industry in Q4 may not turn out to be so bad. They appear to have set the stage for a possible upside surprise... or at the very least, meet expectations. They have also set a very wide range of growth expectations for next year with the lowest end of the range at 21% (14% industry growth multiplied by 1.5 times that rate). This gives them a lot of flexibility going forward. I hope they use it wisely come February 11 and emphasize the low end. MEATHEAD