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

To: Patrick E.McDaniel who wrote (162057)	10/11/2000 9:30:36 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 176387

Atmosphere spooky ahead of computer makers' results By Nicole Volpe NEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Computer makers are giving investors a pre-Halloween fright with third-quarter earnings warnings, slower personal computer sales growth and a weak European market. But the real bogeyman, analysts said, would be if third quarter results showed weakness in the technology sector caused by a wider economic slowdown. "With all the continued bad news there's anxiety that there's something else going on, that there's a broader slowdown hurting technology growth," said Bear Stearns analyst Andrew Neff. He said such fears could be allayed by solid results from Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW), which makes the powerful computers that run networks, data storage company EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), the world's largest computer maker. "Today you've got so many holes that putting one bandaid in place will help, but you need more than one bandaid to stop the bleeding," said Neff. Earnings and revenue warnings from Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has said it remains confident it will meet its targets for 15 percent revenue growth, and IBM has stayed mum about the quarter. Analysts are hoping for IBM to show sales growth, for the first time in a year, of about 9 percent on a constant currency basis. But some analysts pointed to the weakness of the euro, which could shave whole percentage points off revenue growth once sales are converted back into dollars, as a potential pitfall for both IBM and HP. "We are concerned about IBM and HP's quarters," Merrill Lynch analyst Thomas Kraemer wrote in a note to clients, citing currency and sales of storage products as wild cards. Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) executives have said that they do not see a slowdown in consumer PC sales, and said that demand in Europe was within expectations. The world's No. 1 personal computer maker said in its second-quarter earnings report it expected higher growth for the rest of the year than the 8 percent revenue growth it saw for that period. Banc of America Securities analyst Kurt King said he expected Compaq to report third-quarter sales of $10.8 billion, compared with $9.21 billion in the same period a a year ago. "We think strong growth trends have continued in Compaq's server and notebook PC business," King wrote in a note to clients. "Healthy overall results should help convince skeptics that this really is a 'new Compaq.'" Kraemer pointed to Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW), the leading maker of the powerful computers that run Web sites and computer networks and data storage companies EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) and Network Appliance as being safer bets. "They sit where the demand is and have the right software," he said. Sun was expected to report fiscal first-quarter revenues of $4.37 billion, according analyst estimates compiled by First Call/Thomson Financial, compared with $3.12 billion in the same period a year ago. EMC was expected to report sales of $2.22 billion, compared with $1.33 billion a year ago. Personal computer maker Gateway Inc. (NYSE: GTW) will be the first in the sector to report when it posts results on Thursday. First Call/Thomson Financial said Gateway was expected to report sales of $2.51 billion, compared with $2.18 billion in the third quarter of 1999. "We think Gateway will hit its $2.5 billion revenue target and meet consensus earnings per share of 46 cents or beat it by a penny or two," said King. Company Date Qtr First Call Gateway October 12 Q3 0.46 IBM October 17 Q3 1.08 Apple Computer October 18 Q4 0.31 EMC Corp October 18 Q3 0.19 Sun Microsystems October 18 Q1 0.25 Compaq October 24 Q3 0.29 Dell Computer November 9 Q3 0.25 siliconinvestor.com