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Technology Stocks : MRV Communications (MRVC) opinions? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sector Investor who wrote (7568)	3/4/1998 8:47:00 AM
From: LarryX-Man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42804

I liked the 12 month target of 43 that Gruntal put on the stock. That is a great return! I can't understand why this did not get more discussion. Someone on this board said last road show they did had a 10 point run in the stock. Lets all hope for some of that this time. Larry

To: Sector Investor who wrote (7568)	3/4/1998 5:10:00 PM
From: wang	Respond to of 42804

TO ALL: Smartmoney regarding MRVC: Enjoy March 4, 1998 What's more interesting is the rest of the list: MRV Communications...... Nevertheless, all four have been able to broaden their product lines within key niches, while keeping ahead of the technology curve. The small fry on our list are succeeding by working underneath giants like Cisco. MRV Communications and Xylan, for instance, are both benefiting from Corporate America's headlong move to Ethernet switches -- which allow customers to add more bandwidth as intranets grow. As we said above, Cisco, too, is making a strong move into switching. But MRV and Xylan are finding the holes in Cisco's product line where they can use software to add functionality, while keeping prices low. Both have a switch that's almost as cheap per port as less functional hubs from Cisco or Bay Networks (BAY). They've been able to thrive by innovating in an incremental fashion that doesn't threaten Cisco, which tends to go after the higher margin end of the market. MRV, at 19 times this years projected earnings, is currently selling at a huge discount to its 40% three- to five-year long-term growth rate. That's largely because of concerns about inventory buildup due to the loss of business from two original equipment manufacturers, Digital Equipment (DEC) and Newbridge Networks (NN), both of which have exited the LAN switching market. But Amar Senan, an analyst with Volpe Brown, says MRV should get a boost from strengthened European sales in the present quarter, which will help shrink inventories. He's confident the company is headed for its thirty-first consecutive quarter of profit growth, but he says the challenge for both MRV and Xylan is to keep diversifying and to wean themselves from the OEM channel, while building their own brand names with end users. Even so, both companies are on the short list to be acquired with potential suitors including Lucent Technologies (LU), Nortel (NT), and other telecom equipment manufacturers attempting to break into the enterprise networking business. Xylan is the more expensive of the two company It's trading at 33 times forward earnings with a 38% long-term growth rate.