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Technology Stocks : ORFR-ORBIT/FR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Louis Cornell who wrote (188)	12/7/1997 2:47:00 PM
From: adam hefian	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 475

I have been following ORFR since summer.I am thinking of establishing a long position tomorrow at 16.

To: Louis Cornell who wrote (188)	12/7/1997 3:01:00 PM
From: Andrew Furst	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 475

From what I have observed (with ORFR and VSAT), Unterberg Harris does make rating changes based on price. I actually think these upgrades/downgrades based on price are a good idea, but they are somewhat unusual compared with other brokerages. The others seem to only upgrade/downgrade on a change in fundamentals, rather than price. But price should always be a factor in the decision to own a stock. I would not consider the recent change of rating on ORFR to be "correcting a mistake", because the stock was about 50% lower than when UH made the prior cautionary remarks. I was also frustrated when Unterberg Harris downgraded (slightly) VSAT when it was $23/share (now $14), but in retrospect, it was probably wise. If VSAT should drop to $11-12, I would not be surprised if UH came out with a "strong buy" again. My point is that we can probably expect further upgrades/downgrades from Unterberg Harris on the stocks they cover, if the price becomes too high or too low to justify their prior rating. That is actually a good thing, IMO. And now with the UH analyst saying his target on ORFR is $35, there's little reason to worry about another UH downgrade (unless the fundamentals change), at anywhere near the current level. Go ORFR! [Off topic to Gerard, re:MRVC] I've held MRVC for over 4 years, and it's been great in the long term. But they face a lot of competition in computer networking products, their main business. When I first bought the stock, they were not even in the networking business; they were strictly in the fiber-optic components business. I held on because they did such a good job in networking (and fiber-optics, for that matter); they clearly have outstanding management and engineering. I like MRVC, but they are one of many in a crowded field. They do still seem to have an edge in price/performance with their products. But until they can "prove" themselves, ie a few more earnings reports, I don't see the price moving away from $25/share any time soon. Of course I would love to be wrong, and have MRVC move up strongly as soon as possible.