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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (6024)	12/7/1997 10:52:00 AM
From: Carmine Cammarosano	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Sun Micro Q2 Outlook Cheers Analysts PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Sun Microsystems' statement that its second quarter business was progressing well boosted optimism the company will meet or exceed Wall Street estimates, financial analysts said. Shares of Sun, a maker of workstations for engineers which is expanding into a broader computer systems company, rose as high as 41-11/16, up two, before shedding some gains to close at 40-9/16 on Nasdaq volume of more than 10.5 million. "The Sun meeting was very upbeat. They've done more than 50 percent of their expected revenues for the first two months of the quarter," said Salomon Smith Barney analyst John Jones. "If anything, (analysts' estimate) numbers may be inching upward," said Jones, adding he expected there could be a "modest upside" to his current earnings estimate of 54 cents a share for the second fiscal quarter, which ends December 31. According to a survey of analysts by First Call conducted ahead of Wednesday afternoon's analysts conference, which was closed to media, the consensus analyst estimate is also 54 cents a share for the period, up from 46 cents a year ago. David Wu, analyst at ABN-AMRO Chicago, said Sun might normally book one third to 40 percent of its revenues in the first two months of a quarter, so the 50 percent figure was "a little bit better than average but not great." A Sun Microsystems spokeswoman said around two dozen Wall Street equity research analysts had met the company's chief financial officer, Michael Lehman on Wednesday afternoon, but had no immediate comment on details of the meeting. Lehman has begun holding quarterly closed-door briefings for selected "sell-side" analysts who work for stock brokers and investment banks, the company said. Analysts said the CFO told the gathering that the company's high-end Starfire computers were doing very well and its Enterprise 3000 and 6000 systems were also strong. Jones noted Sun was increasing production capacity on its Starfire models up to 150 systems a quarter, which it will achieve "within a few months," and said "there's no want for demand," with some customers ordering 10 systems at a time. "The low-end workstations is the soft spot and we're expecting a whole rollout of a new family of products, top to bottom, on January 13," said Jones. Lehman Brothers analyst George Elling said Sun's systems business was on or above expectations, with its new 450 product meeting plan and the storage business performing strongly. Elling projected year-over-year growth in Sun's Unix server business at over 25 percent, with stable pricing trends. Sun Micro, based in Palo Alto, California, is doing very well in the United States, with operations in Britain, France and Germany doing better than they had been in recent quarters. Japan was showing modest local currency gains, though down in dollar terms. But Elling also said he expects a large one-time write off in the second quarter, which he predicts will exceed $100 million, related to Sun Microsystems' recent acquisitions. Trading Stock On Web Grows Amid Barriers (Next story) Internet Stock Trading Grows Retailers Find Net Profitable Umax Sales Rise Sharply System Targets Legal Field TI Develops Copper Process Microsoft Works With AtHome IBM Launching Think-Tank Intel Looks To Digital TV DVD Makers Still Hopeful c 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without Reuters prior written consent. Contact Reuters