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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob Rudd who wrote (16770)	4/7/2003 9:03:11 PM
From: Mark Marcellus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78652

Bob, interesting article. I actually buy into Dell's taking PC's out of inventory once they ship them. The way their business works, that's appropriate. However, if they're going to do that they should book the sale the way IBM does. Seems to me that the DSO number is the one being manipulated. And no matter how you slice it, you're taking days out of the operating cycle that belong in there.

To: Bob Rudd who wrote (16770)	4/7/2003 11:49:54 PM
From: jeffbas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78652

Bob, one other comment on Dell. For 31 days from the date of the invoice (I believe) the customer can "put" the title back to Dell for a full refund (with the probable exception of shipping, which is often free). That clouds the situation even more.

To: Bob Rudd who wrote (16770)	4/8/2003 5:44:00 AM
From: TimbaBear	Respond to of 78652

Bob Rudd Thanks for posting the article, and you're correct, I did find it interesting. WHAT MAKES THEM LOOK EVEN LEANER AGAINST COMPETITORS IS AN APPROACH TO ACCOUNTING FOR INVENTORY THAT ONLY DELL EMPLOYS. I find myself always checking my pockets to see what's missing when a company employs an accounting "convention" that no one else does. It never bodes well for my interests as a passive owner. DELL, THE WORLD'S SECOND-LARGEST PC MAKER BY UNITS SHIPPED, TREATS IN- TRANSIT PCS DIFFERENTLY, MIXING THEM WITH ``OTHER CURRENT ASSETS.'' DELL is pretty arrogant and it doesn't surprise me that they felt like they had to reinvent the wheel because they were the first one to have ever run across the issue of making something and then shipping it to a customer and faced with the really perplexing question: "What category do we put the stuff into that we've sold and shipped?" ``It's totally variable,'' Michael Dell said in an interview. ``There's NO STANDARD WAY OF ACCOUNTING FOR INVENTORY IN THE CHANNEL. Dell doesn't have any inventory in the channel; we have Dell and we have the customer.'' Isn't that just so special? PosFCF

To: Bob Rudd who wrote (16770)	4/8/2003 2:28:36 PM
From: Bob Rudd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78652

ACDO: Started today @13.20 - Ready, fire, aim shooting from the hip after checking the debt-[not too high]. Listening to the CC now. Both the AR reseves and unrelated rev slippage are related to a purchase and look temporary and fixable. They Purchased AR's and used the predecessor reserve methods which now appear inadequate - if this is the case there may be a retroactive purchase price adjustment. The slippage in patient referrels was due to temporary sales distraction related to business combination. There's some uncertainty about this but they expect to be able to provide 04 guidance by May 5 CC, so this isn't wildly uncertain. Some roughcut multiples: EV/(EBITDA-CAPEX)=(47.613.2+199-36.3)/(110-14)=8.2 EV/FCF=(47.613.2+199-36.3)/(55-14)=19.3 4/8/03 8:33AM Accredo Health lowers guidance; examining adequacy of account reserves (ACDO) 25.41: Co. revises FY03 revenue estimate to a range of $1.35 bln to $1.37 bln vs the Multex consensus of $1.44 bln; cuts its FY03 EPS estimate to a range of $1.20 to $1.25 per share vs the Multex consensus of $1.37 per share. ACDO with similars and loosely related GTIV from whom they purchased the questionable receivables: quote.yahoo.com