Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Security Dynamics SDTI -- How much money can they make?? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rrufff who wrote (351)	4/2/1998 7:19:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1614

NEW YORK, April 2 (Reuters) - An unusually terse conference call on Thursday morning between Security Dynamics Technologies Inc. and Wall Street analysts may have exacerbated the precipitous decline in the company's stock. By the close, the shares were off 15-9/16, or 37 percent, at an 11-month low of 26-15/16. The company, with about 40 million shares outstanding, was easily the most active issue on the Nasdaq with more than 31 million shares traded. The Bedford, Mass.-based maker of network security products said in a press release early Thursday that its first-quarter results would fall short of analysts' estimates because of trouble closing some sales. Soon thereafter, the company held what one analyst called a 90-second conference call, during which Security Dynamics' chairman, Chuck Stuckey, read a prepared statement and refused to take analysts' questions. "It was very surprising, unlike any pre-announcement call I've ever listened to," said David Young, an analyst at BancAmerica Robertson Stephens. "When he finished he said he would not be taking any questions and then he hit his button and hung up." Young and other analysts said the call made them jittery about Security Dynamics' near-term prospects and helped fuel the brutal selloff of the company's shares. Analysts were also left wondering what the impact was on future sales and new product launches. "There's lingering issues which were not answered in the conference call," said Kama Krishna, an analyst at Laidlaw Global Securities. Security Dynamics' Stuckey told Reuters the company was legally limited to what it could say to analysts because of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rules. "I would have much preferred to have questions and answers on this, even though there's a lot of things I couldn't have answered," Stuckey said. "But they (the company's lawyers) really insisted this be the way we deal with it." Stuckey said he realized the company's reticence may have spooked Wall Street. "I think the fact that we could not give guidance -- that probably had a lot more impact than the brevity (on the company's stock)," he said. First Call, the research tracking firm, said at least three analysts lowered their recommendations on the stock on Thursday. One of them, Rakesh Sood, an analyst at Goldman, Sachs, lowered his rating to market perform and removed it from Goldman's recommended list. "In the next three to six months we're not sure what the order pipeline and revenue visibility look like," he said.