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Non-Tech : EARNINGS REPORTING - surprises, misses & more -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 2MAR$ who wrote (367)	10/21/2000 4:47:43 AM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 762

Strong earnings light up fiber-optic stocks (UPDATE: Adds closing stock prices. In U.S. dollars unless noted.) By Susan Taylor OTTAWA, Oct. 20 (Reuters) - Shares in fiber-optic suppliers lit up on Friday, sparked by market-beating financial results from SDL Inc. (NasdaqNM:SDLI - news) and Corvis Corp. (NasdaqNM:CORV - news) that underscored torrid demand for products that push information further and faster on optical networks. ``Everybody in the optics business has been scared that Lucent, which has been a main customer for many of the optical component companies, could drag earnings down,'' said Arun Veerappan, analyst at Robertson Stephens Inc. ``The SDL results proved otherwise. Lucent was a 10 percent plus customer, but despite weakness at Lucent, SDL grew revenues.'' Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU - news), the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, recently warned that it would fall short of fourth-quarter profit estimates for several reasons including a 5 percent drop in sales of optical networking systems. Amid upgrades from such brokerages as Credit Suisse First Boston and ABN AMRO, laser maker SDL led net gainers on Nasdaq on Friday, adding $49-57/64 to close at $339-1/64, an increase of more than 17 percent. SDL, which JDS Uniphase Corp. (Toronto:JDU.TO - news) plans to buy, posted earnings of 45 cents a share on Thursday, well above the First Call/Thomson Financial consensus estimate of 38 cents. Wit SoundView analyst Kevin Slocum lifted his forecast for 2000 sales to $501 million from $483 million and raised 2001 to $1.03 billion from $831 million. Earnings estimates for 2000 rose to $1.49 per share from $1.35 and for 2001 to $2.65 from $1.97. ``SDL is knocking the cover off the ball,'' Slocum wrote. ``We believe the company's momentum is exceptional and frankly strong enough to push the shares of JDS higher.'' SDL also said on Thursday that the majority of documents in a second request for information about its takeover by JDS Uniphase have been submitted to the U.S. Justice Department. JDS Uniphase, the world's No. 1 maker of fiber-optic components and modules, and SDL have said they are confident the deal will close by the end of December. ``SDL put up pretty good numbers and their acquisitions are tracking to plan,'' said Christian Koch, senior technology analyst at Atlanta-based Trusco Capital Management, which oversees $30 billion in assets. ``And the market is infatuated with optical networking companies.'' Trusco includes fiber-optics maker Corning Inc. (NYSE:GLW - news), which gained $10-12/16 to end at $105-15/16, in its portfolio. Corning, which reports its third quarter on Oct. 24, recently said it expects pro-forma earnings of 34 to 35 cents per share, which bettered analysts' expectations of 29 cents per share. JDS Uniphase shares also found favour on Friday, in advance of what is expected to be robust first-quarter results. The average estimate from 27 analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial is JDS will post a profit of 16 cents a share when it reports earnings on October 26. Shares in JDS led gains on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday adding C$17.45 to close at C$154.25, an increase of nearly 13 percent. On Nasdaq, it rose $12-7/16 to end at $102-3/8. ``Is this sustainable? That really depends on how JDS Uniphase comes out,'' said ABN AMRO analyst Dave Kang of the optical rally. ``I do expect strong numbers...JDS Uniphase certainly is a bellwether company in this space.'' Corvis, which has developed an all-optical switch, enjoyed a second day of market gains after reporting third-quarter revenues on Thursday that beat analyst revenue expectations by 186 percent. The stock added $7-33/64 to finish at $67-1/8 on Friday, after gaining about 12.5 percent on Thursday. Corvis posted revenues of $22.9 million, which blasted past the average estimate of $8 million in sales from 10 analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial. It reported a loss of 7 cents a share versus expectations of a loss of 9 cents a share. Credit Suisse First Boston analyst James Parmelee raised his 2000 sales forecast to $58 million from $33 million and for 2001 to $305 million from $260 million. He cut his 2000 forecast to a loss of 31 cents per share from 41 cents and for 2001 to 24 cents per share from 26 cents. Optical chip makers also basked in the market glow with PMC-Sierra Inc. (NasdaqNM:PMCS - news) up $12-1/8 to $204-1/2 and TranSwitch Corp. (NasdaqNM:TXCC - news) gaining $5-9/16 to end at $72-1/2. ($1 equals $1.51 Canadian)