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Technology Stocks : IBM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: art slott who wrote (2090)	1/9/1998 8:34:00 PM
From: DAN KACKLEY	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8220

The Trend Is Your Friend!(This Hot Air Balloon Is Going Down!!!) Get out before it is too late, the hot air is leaking out! Go ahead make the jump while the parachutes will still work! Try and not land on the cactus plants! NEXT STOP LOOKS LIKE $92 Glad I didn't sell my puts! Good Luck Dan

To: art slott who wrote (2090)	1/10/1998 2:48:00 PM
From: Greg Jung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8220

Here is a bond rating with an outlook I'm trying to figure out: biz.yahoo.com (reproduced below) Thursday January 8, 2:52 pm Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: Fitch IBCA, Inc. IBM $700M Senior Debt Rated 'AA-' By Fitch IBCA - Fitch IBCA Financial Wire - NEW YORK, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- International Business Machine's (IBM) $700 million 6.5% senior debt due 2028 is rated 'AA-' by Fitch IBCA. The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. The rating reflects the company's leading market position, strong operating cash flow and conservative financial profile. In addition, the rating considers the shift in the company's revenue mix towards lower margin business lines. IBM's continued focus on cost reduction has resulted in significant increases in EBITDA and operating cash flow. Over the past 5 years, EBITDA has increased by nearly 80% to $12.5 billion for the twelve months ended Sept. 30, 1997 from $7 billion in 1993. During this period the company has reduced its core debt by nearly 50%. While pro forma total core debt is expected to increase to $3.4 billion, the company maintains its highly conservative financial profile, with leverage, measured by core debt to EBITDA of less than 1.0 times (x). Additionally, IBM's large cash balances provide it with a high degree of financial flexibility as cash coverage of core debt was approximately 2.4x as of Sept. 30, 1997. In recent years the company's revenue mix has shifted towards its lower margin business lines. IBM's services segment which generates gross margins of 20% currently accounts for approximately 24% of total revenue compared to 15.5% in 1993. During the same period, IBM's hardware segment, which generates gross margins of approximately 34% declined to 45% of the total revenues from 49%. This shift in mix has caused IBM's combined gross margins to decline to approximately 38% for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 1997 from 38.5% in 1993. However, offsetting the decline in profitability is the long-term nature of the services business and the stability it adds to the company's cash flow. SOURCE: Fitch IBCA, Inc. ====================================== Does anybody know what "core debt" is. The debt listed on balance sheet is more like $25b than $3b. I noticed that in 1994 they total a small loss in EBITD so is they took 24-month earnings they could have quoted a 140% increase. Greg