To: Gary Korn who wrote (31099 ) 1/20/1998 10:02:00 AM From: fiberman Respond to of 61433
The following is from briefing.com about LU: LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. (LU) 75 7/16 CLOSED. This telecommunications equipment maker had a very robust quarter in the period ended in December as earnings easily beat Wall Street estimates of $1.52 a share. According to Lucent, it posted a fiscal 1Q operating net of $1.72 a share, twenty cents ahead of the First Call estimate. In the year-ago period, it had earnings of $1.35 a share. Including a one-time charge of $427 million for the purchase of Livingston Enterprises and a one-time gain of $95 million for the sale of its Advanced Technology Systems unit, Lucent had a net of $1.21 a share. Revenues in the latest period rose 9.9% to $8.724 billion from year-ago level of $7.938 billion, and on a continuing operations basis, revenues increased by 16%. Lucent said that its performance in the latest period were helped by sales across all products lines, especially to network services providers as the company recorded "robust sales of switching and wireless systems and software." During the quarter, gross margins also improved, rising to 48.2% from 45.9% in the year-ago period, as the company enjoyed record software sales, strong intellectual property revenues and managed to keep costs under control. Recently, the stock has come under some selling pressure due to concerns that the selling cycle is being extended due to the financial woes being experienced by customers in Asia, and deregulation uncertainties in the U.S. While the latest results do not hint at these snags, the stock has retreated around 20% since reaching its high in mid-October. This latest report should ease some of these concerns, although the true impact of Asia and the US should be much more apparent in the company's fiscal 2Q.