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

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (173902)	2/20/2004 12:40:02 PM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.	Respond to of 176387

Reputations--Survey Respondents were asked to nominate two companies they felt have the best reputations overall and two companies that they felt have the worst reputations overall. Rankings are for the 60 named most often. Reputation score is based on respondents' ratings of each company on 20 attributes in six key dimensions. Dell slipped to 10 from 9 last year. Still, not to shabby. Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2004 Rank 2003 Rank 2002 Company 2003 Reputation Quotient Score 2002 Reputation Quotient Score 1 1 Johnson & Johnson 79.47 82.14 2 4 United Parcel Service 78.49 78.72 3 3 Coca-Cola 77.95 78.95 4 15 Walt Disney 77.95 76.18 5 13 Microsoft 77.86 76.75 6 5 General Mills 77.35 78.61 7 12 FedEx 77.00 76.79 8 10 3M 76.67 77.90 9 14 Procter & Gamble 76.48 76.67 10 9 Dell 76.04 78.18 11 25 Honda Motor 75.84 73.06 12 7 Eastman Kodak 75.84 78.46 13 11 Sony 75.81 77.47 14 8 Home Depot 75.78 78.24 15 - Berkshire Hathaway 75.73 - 16 19 Intel 74.86 74.60 17 - Starbucks 74.57 - 18 20 General Electric 74.17 74.51 19 18 Anheuser-Busch 74.07 74.85 20 27 Toyota Motor 74.01 72.85 21 22 Southwest Airlines 73.38 73.29 22 23 Hewlett-Packard 72.95 73.16 23 17 Wal-Mart 72.87 75.16 24 16 PepsiCo 72.42 75.34 25 26 Target 72.09 72.95 26 28 DuPont 71.58 70.98 27 24 IBM 71.53 73.10 28 - Pfizer 71.34 - 29 37 Apple Computer 69.87 68.30 30 31 Nike 69.81 69.60 31 35 Boeing 68.86 68.76 32 - Merck 68.76 - 33 29 Sears, Roebuck 68.50 70.90 34 33 J.C. Penney 68.41 69.26 35 - Best Buy 68.26 - 36 38 McDonald's 68.11 68.03 37 32 General Motors 66.97 69.44 38 43 Ford Motor 66.03 63.92 39 34 Unilever 65.90 68.95 40 40 Verizon Communications 65.55 65.84 41 48 SBC Communications 65.24 62.39 42 36 Gateway 64.50 68.70 43 42 DaimlerChrysler 64.05 64.75 44 - Bank of America 63.43 - 45 41 AT&T 61.83 65.25 46 51 Sprint 59.58 57.74 47 45 Exxon Mobil 59.05 63.53 48 49 AMR (American Airlines) 57.60 59.57 49 50 Time Warner (formerly AOL Time Warner) 57.25 59.35 50 - Halliburton 57.17 - 51 54 Qwest Communications 55.61 50.96 52 - UAL (United Airlines) 55.47 - 53 55 Bridgestone/Firestone 53.95 50.34 54 52 Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris) 53.49 53.92 55 - Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia 51.75 - 56 53 Kmart 51.13 53.36 57 - R.J. Reynolds Tobacco 51.01 - 58 59 Global Crossing 40.09 33.37 59 58 MCI (formerly WorldCom) 36.63 37.03 60 60 Enron 26.66 26.22

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (173902)	2/20/2004 12:51:07 PM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Hewlett-Packard Earnings Get Lift From Weak Dollar By DAVID BANK Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Hewlett-Packard Co. delivered a mixed bag of results for its fiscal first quarter as strong performances in its personal- and business-computing groups were partially offset by lower profits in its technology consulting division. Net income rose 30% on revenue boosted significantly by the weakening dollar. For the three months ended Jan. 31, the Palo Alto, Calif., technology company reported net income of $936 million, or 30 cents a share, up from $721 million, or 24 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose 9%, to $19.5 billion from $17.9 billion. H-P said the declining value of the dollar helped, making its products less expensive for overseas buyers. Without the currency boost, H-P said revenue would have increased only 1%. The effect of the weaker dollar was most pronounced in Europe, where revenue rose 17% fueled by strong sales of personal computers and business computers. Adjusted for currency, however, European revenue was essentially flat. Revenue in Japan rose 4% measured in dollars but fell 7% in constant currency. H-P raised its revenue forecast for the current quarter by $100 million, saying it now expects revenue in the period ending April 30 of $19.2 billion to $19.6 billion. H-P left its profit forecast unchanged, at 34 cents a share, excluding certain expenses. Chief Executive Carly Fiorina said she remains less optimistic than other industry executives in forecasting about business-technology spending, projecting an increase of 2% or less this year. "We know that customers have gotten more discriminating about how they spend their money, when they spend their money and with whom they spend their money," she said. (Contrast this with what Rollins said recently [my emphasis]) For the just-completed quarter, the company reported profits in all of its five major divisions. Ms. Fiorina called the quarter "solid" and said it represented H-P's "most balanced profit performance" since its 2002 merger with Compaq Computer Corp. Ms. Fiorina touted the results of H-P's personal-computer division, which is locked in a brutal price war with rival Dell Inc. H-P late last year reclaimed from Dell the No. 1 spot in world-wide PC sales, measured in units, though Dell continues to generate greater profits from its PC operations. H-P's PC group reported a $62 million operating profit in the first quarter, up 88% from a year earlier, on a 20% increase in revenue to $6.2 billion. The profit was the group's largest since the Compaq merger. Ms. Fiorina said H-P's PC sales rose nearly twice as fast as Dell's for a second consecutive quarter. The results show that H-P can sustain its market-share momentum while maintaining profitability, she said. H-P's enterprise-systems group, which makes server computers and data-storage devices for corporate customers, also reported improved results. That group swung to an operating profit of $108 million from a $92 million loss a year earlier. Revenue rose 5%, to $3.9 billion. One trouble area appeared to be H-P's consulting arm, which competes with International Business Machines Corp. and others. Profits for the group fell 24% to $258 million, on a 6% increase in revenue to $3.2 billion. The company said it had strong growth in its managed-services business, which runs the technology arms of large corporations. Still, H-P said revenue in its consulting and technology-integration unit declined 10%, reflecting soft demand and intense price competition. The bulk of H-P's profits came, as usual, from its powerhouse Imaging and Printing Group, which reported operating profits of $968 million on revenue of $5.9 billion, each up 6%. H-P's overall results weren't a surprise, as the company last week released preliminary results to quell speculation that it had fallen short of forecasts. H-P released its results after normal trading hours Thursday. At 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, H-P shares were up 35 cents at $23.86. In after-hours trading, H-P shares fell to $23.35. Write to David Bank at david.bank@wsj.com Updated February 20, 2004 9:33 a.m.

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (173902)	2/20/2004 1:05:10 PM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Dell Execs Encouraged By Activity In Corporate Markets By BOB SECHLER Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES (This article was originally published Thursday) COMPARE THIS WITH CARLEY'S DOWNBEAT ASSESSMENT YESTERDAY, (my emphasis) AUSTIN, Texas -- Dell Inc. (DELL) executives said Thursday that they're seeing an uptick in technology spending by large corporate customers as the economy slowly improves. "Businesses are growing, (and) the signs are getting relatively healthy," Dell Chief Executive Michael Dell said during a conference call with the news media. Chief Financial Officer Jim Schneider noted that "the number of opportunities we had to bid in the corporate sector" increased in the fourth quarter, a trend he called encouraging. Still, both Schneider and CEO Dell said the small and medium business markets are likely to continue to be more robust than the large corporate market in the first quarter. The company forecast earnings for its fiscal first quarter of 28 cents a share, in line with Wall Street expectations, compared with 23 cents a share in the year-ago period. Dell said first-quarter revenue will climb 17.5%, to $11.2 billion - also in line with Wall Street views - from $9.53 billion in the year-ago period. Earlier Thursday, Dell Inc. reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of 29 cents a share, or $749 million, compared with net income of 23 cents a share, or $603 million, in the year-ago period. Revenue climbed about 18%, to $11.5 billion from $9.73 billion a year ago. The earnings figure edged Wall Street's mean expectation of 28 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call, although the revenue figure was in line with the average view and Dell's own prior guidance. CFO Schneider said the company's fourth-quarter tax rate came in slightly lower than expected at 27.3%, which helped its earnings exceed the mean forecast by a small amount. Meanwhile, the company said overall unit shipments should climb more than 20% in its fiscal first quarter, compared to the year-ago period, on the heels of a 25% climb in the fourth quarter. The first quarter traditionally is seasonally slower than the fourth quarter because of a drop-off in consumer sales. Schneider emphasized that Dell is focused on "profitable growth" in particular, meaning higher-margin products such as computer servers and storage devices. "We continue to grow faster than the rest of the industry in strategic product categories," he said, pointing out that Dell's fourth-quarter server shipments climbed 40% from the year-ago period. Overall, however, "we're seeing improvements in all aspects of our business, with positive unit growth in every segment," he added. Dell executives described the fourth-quarter pricing environment as "competitive," particularly for low-end systems, although they said it's been that way for some time. "Yes, it's a competitive market," CEO Dell said. "And, yes, we're winning." Still, company executives disparaged the strategies of some competitors, which they didn't name, for selling low-end computers below cost to drive sales of related product lines. CEO Dell referred to such tactics as "subsidy-based (business) models" later Thursday on a conference call with analysts. Dell's average unit selling price came in at $1,540 in the fourth quarter, compared with $1,620 in the third quarter and $1,640 in the year-ago fourth quarter. Still, Dell's fourth-quarter gross margin registered 18.2%, flat from 18.2% in the third quarter and off only slightly from 18.3% in the year-ago fourth quarter. Meanwhile, company executives said they expect computer component costs to decline moderately in the fiscal first quarter, with CFO Schneider estimating that they could fall by a half percentage point a week overall. The company also told analysts that it intends to increase its share buybacks during its current fiscal year. Schneider said the company will repurchase about $600 million of its own shares per quarter, an increase of about $100 million per quarter from the prior year. - By Bob Sechler; Dow Jones Newswires; 512-236-9637 Updated February 13, 2004 7:37 a.m.