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.

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

To: 2MAR$ who wrote (641)	5/25/2001 2:40:31 AM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 762

5/15 BEAS ( $38 gap $42)Stock Up 11 Percent After Earns Release NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of BEA Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:BEAS - news) surged 11 percent on Wednesday, the day after the application server maker released quarterly results and raised its earnings forecast for its current fiscal year. Shares of the San Jose, Calif., maker of software that developers use as a foundation on which to build their programs were up $3.74 at $37.78 in morning trade, the low end of a 52-week range of $20.19 to $89.50. The stock was among the most active and leading net gainers on the Nasdaq Stock Market. ``We believe BEA has weathered through the worst of the economic downturn in fine fashion and are now upgrading from buy to a strong buy,'' Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Tim Klasell wrote in a research note. After Tuesday's market close, BEA reported fiscal first-quarter earnings that beat consensus expectations by a penny and raised its guidance for the year ending in January. The company said it expects its revenue mix to continue to shift toward high-margin licensing while easing up on lower-margin services. Although BEA said revenue growth for the year probably will be at the low end of its prior guidance, it raised its earnings per share outlook because of the higher profit margin it expects. Several analysts, such as Goldman Sachs' Anne Meisner and Lehman Brothers Neil Herman, maintained their bullish ratings on the stock. However, Banc of America Securities' Greg Vogel lowered his price target to $45 from $60 because of the stock's high valuation. While BEA and other market leaders, such as Siebel Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:SEBL - news) and Veritas Software Corp. (NasdaqNM:VRTS - news), ``will continue to garner premium valuations,'' he wrote, ``we are somewhat cautious at these levels.'' Vogel maintained a buy rating on the stock. ``We believe investors should be opportunistic with entry points,'' he said. Prudential's John McPeake, one of the first analysts to raise concerns about BEA's long-term outlook, kept his hold rating and $41 price target on the stock. BEA had begun to feel the economic impact of the slowdown in information technology spending, he said, and competition from International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) may have contributed to deals becoming more difficult to close.

To: 2MAR$ who wrote (641)	5/25/2001 2:44:07 AM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 762

5/15 NTAP ($25 dwn $22, bounc) Meets Estimates, Sees Flat Revenue This Quarter Network storage systems company Network Appliance (NTAP:Nasdaq - news) reported fiscal fourth-quarter results that were in line with Wall Street's drastically reduced expectations. The Sunnyvale, Calif., maker of storage server appliances said after the regular session closed Tuesday that income excluding certain items totaled $7.9 million, or 2 cents a share, in the period ended April 28. That figure matched the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call, but is 71% lower than the $24.9 million, or 7 cents a share, the company earned in the same period last year. Actual earnings were $500,000, allowing the company to break even on a per-share basis, compared with last year's $24.5 million, or 7 cents a share. Revenue, meanwhile, came in at $225.8 million, beating the $219 million analysts were expecting and up from last year's $200 million. Up until mid-April, analysts had been expecting NetApp's sales to come in around $310 million and earnings to be close to 10 cents a share. But then NetApp warned that it expected fourth-quarter sales to plunge as much as 25% from the third quarter's $288 million. The company said then that it expected earnings to come in between 1 cent and 3 cents a share for the quarter. Since that warning, NetApp's shares have risen more than 35%. "While the fourth quarter was challenging, Network Appliance is strategically positioned for consistent, long-term future growth,'' CEO Dan Warmenhoven said in a statement accompanying the earnings release. "As economic conditions improve, we believe information storage will lead the rebound in IT spending." For the full fiscal year, NetApp had sales of $1 billion, up from $579.3 million in fiscal 2000. The company earned 32 cents a share in fiscal 2001, compared with 22 cents a share in the prior year. Gross profit margins declined nearly four percentage points in the fourth quarter to 56.1%. Warmenhoven said that decline was due more to the company's aggressive pricing of older storage systems from inventory than to competition from EMC (EMC:NYSE - news) and other storage venders. Recent comments by NetApp executives to the effect that they were seeing some firming in corporate IT budgets may have had investors hoping for correspondingly bullish guidance Tuesday night. But CFO Jeffrey Allen spoke cautiously about the coming quarters on the conference call following NetApp's earnings release. "We lack clear signs of an overall IT spending recovery," he said, and told analysts to expect first-quarter revenue to come in more or less flat with the fourth quarter. First-quarter earnings, meanwhile, should be between 1 cent and 2 cents a share, Allen said. That guidance is pretty much in line with what Wall Street is looking for, with analysts currently expecting first-quarter sales of $230 million and earnings of 2 cents a share. Whether that's enough to keep NetApp's shares aloft remains to be seen. The stock is still trading with a hypergrowth valuation, more than 90 times its fiscal 2002 earnings estimates. Yet, analysts are currently forecasting revenue growth of about 17% for that same year, and a decline in earnings per share of about 25%.