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Technology Stocks : Jabil Circuit (JBL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: patroller who wrote (3930)	5/26/1998 2:42:00 PM
From: Asymmetric	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6317

Patroller, An Employeee Perspective From the Yahoo board. Post seems to ring true, so I find no reason to doubt it's veracity. It's very positive. Jabil Info For All / jatampa1 / May 26 1998 This will be an extremely lengthy message, but worth reading.... you may want to print it, then read it. REPLY TO: MailtoJerry I work at Jabil's St.Pete, FL campus (Test Engineering Department). I am not on the Board of Directors, so this is not insider trading information. "MailtoJerry" asked me how business looks from the inside. Well, here is my view..... First, you will have to understand that even though Jabil Circuit falls under the Tech. Sector, there is an amazing diversity of product lines that make up the company. From Cisco, 3Com, NEC, Itronix, Fujikura, Quantum, Apple, Whirlpool, GI, ViaSat, Diva, PairGain, Gateway, etc, etc, etc... With manufacturing plants in Florida, California, Michigan, Scotland, Mexico, and Malasia. So why all the up's and down's? Jabil gets penalized when individual markets, for example, the "HOME PC" market, runs into trouble. People see "Technology" and panic. But if you research their product line, Home PC's bairly concern the interest of Jabil. This explains a lot of the up's and down's of Jabil (in my opinion). Jabil's revenue increases, profit increases, employee profit sharing is at an all time high, yet the stock goes down!! Jabil is absolutely ontop of things, and I think our corporate team is "beyond" professional. So where does this leave us? Well, as most of you know, it leaves us confused, but also undervalued (see www.vectorvest.com for Jabil valuation. IMPRESSIVE) Current issues that are in discussion right now consist of: HP,Dell,Quantum,and up coming contracts. I GO THREW THESE TOPICS IN THE VERY NEXT MESSAGE.............. Concerning HP: Jabil has a new deal with HP concerning their Printer Manufacturing Plants. One of the past messages asked why there has been no details announced that might help boost the stock? From what I understand, this transfer will not really happen until August 31, 1998. The deal "is" fact, and is an enormous amount of revenue. But there will be a transision period. I don't think the news will have much effect until revenue is shown as "Jabil Revenue", and not "HP Revenue". REMEMBER, THIS HP INFORMATION OTHER THEN THE FACT THAT THERE IS A DEAL, IS JUST MY PERSONAL VIEW. Concerning DELL: The DELL contract is FACT. Jabil has built for DELL in the past, and I am happy to have them back. DELL is an excellent, well run company. At the top of their field, due to their mail order style business (low promotion cost,etc). From the news floating around, we will be building prototypes sometime later on this year, and may not start full production until early next year. Again, like HP, no immediate revenue, may be the reason for no significant rise in the stock due to the news. Concerning Quantum: Quantum DLT 4000 series is coming back to the ST. Pete campus some time in June. Joining the already existing DLT 7000 series. This is good for the St. Pete campus. We are a little light since we have more room now due to the construction of our new building. But with this added business to St.Pete, and another production line from HP going into the St. Pete campus, it's looking good. There have been other rumors about "Ericson", and "GE", visiting us recently. I have no proof that this is true. But I will keep you posted if anything happens. The second quarter of this year was a bit on the slow side compared to Jabil's recent growth. So keep your eyes out on the next quarterly earnings. This may hold the stock down for a little longer. But Jabil suprises over and over, you never know. But I myself, am going to be cautious for just a little while. But if the price is right, I may increase my position. To sum it up, a slower second quarter, and some transition time on new contracts, should keep you on your toes. But when HP revenues begin to turn into Jabil revenues, and Quantum returns production to ST. Pete, and revenues begin on DELL, AND rumors on Ericson and GE, and a few others pan out, I can't seem to find anything negative. Especially since we are already undervalued by a long shot. I KNOW THE PREVIOUS SENTENCE WAS A RUN-ON, HA,HA.. I love the company I work for, I love the job I do, and I care about the quality of workmanship that comes out of our company. If we don't do it right the first time, it just comes back to us. I take pride in the products that I help produce in the U.S.A. I am a shareholder as well, and the job I do effects me as a shareholder. And you better believe that I care about the value of our stock. In my opinion, I find that this attitude is shared among many at Jabil. Thank you for having the patience to read this pathetically over-extended message.. (Also - an added bonus!!!Peter) Jabil Circuit Reiterated 'Buy' at Needham & Co. Bloomberg News May 26, 1998, 6:15 a.m. PT Princeton, New Jersey, May 26 (Bloomberg Data) -- Jabil Circuit Inc. was reiterated ''buy'' by analyst John J. McManus at Needham & Co.

To: patroller who wrote (3930)	5/30/1998 1:09:00 AM
From: patroller	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6317

Just a reminder patroller.......................... After a cold spell, Wall Street is warming up again to Jabil Circuit. Just two months ago, the St. Petersburg-based company warned analysts its earnings for the second half of the fiscal year ending this August might not match the torrid gains of last year. Jabil manufactures circuit-board assemblies for computer makers and other such customers, some of whom the company says are reducing their orders due to the weakened Asian economy. The news cast a pall over Jabil's stock as investors began to question whether this softness would wreck the company's next fiscal year, too, and if so, by how much. Though Jabil's shares have gained 10% this year to $43.813, that trails the 18.5% rise in the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index. And the current price is a long way from the 52-week high of $72 reached last October, before profit-taking and a choppy market for tech issues sent Jabil tumbling. But things may be looking up for Jabil. Indeed, some analysts expect that the current soft demand in Asia won't hurt the company's earnings much beyond the current fiscal year. Jabil has been among the fastest-growing and most consistently profitable contract manufacturers of circuit boards in the U.S., more than doubling per-share earnings for the year ended Aug. 31, 1997. And now, regardless of Asia's short-term impact, some analysts project per-share earnings-growth rates of at least 30% annually over the next three to five years. Yet Jabil currently trades at only 19 times analysts' consensus estimate for the year ending in August 1999, according to First Call, making the stock among the least expensive technology plays, analysts say. Typically, a wide gap between a company's price/earnings ratio and its growth rate signals upside potential. As a result, some analysts have begun urging investors to give Jabil a second chance. "I feel increasingly bullish about fiscal 1999," says James Savage, an analyst in the New York office of BT Alex. Brown, who last week raised his rating on the stock to a "strong buy" from a "buy" -- his second upgrade on Jabil's shares in recent weeks. Mr. Savage says that while shorter term, the company, along with others in the tech sector, may be affected by Asia, Jabil nevertheless remains one of the leading companies in its industry with sound fundamentals. Mr. Savage expects Jabil to salvage the first half of its next fiscal year simply by going about its business, adding new customers and gaining additional business from existing ones. Analysts expect the company to add clients across various industries but note that Jabil has told them that it is targeting the fast-growing telecommunications sector in particular. Further, the company on Monday ended speculation among analysts that it was going to make an acquisition -- a rare move for Jabil, which traditionally has generated most of its growth internally. Jabil announced that it plans to acquire the manufacturing assets of Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet Solutions Group Formatter Manufacturing Organization. Terms of the deal, which includes assets in Boise, Idaho, weren't disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by Aug. 31. Scott Butler, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, an investment firm in Portland, Ore., says he is confident about Jabil's ability to recover its earnings momentum by the end of 1998. Some of his clients, he says, are interested in the stock and "are saying 'Hey, it's trading at a huge discount.'" The stock's modest price/earnings ratio and Jabil's strong position in its industry are key reasons why John Dean, an analyst in the San Francisco office of Salomon Smith Barney, initiated coverage of Jabil last week with a "buy" rating. Mr. Dean says that while near-term earnings might not sizzle, in the longer term the sector is poised for above-average growth, giving Jabil's stock "excellent long-term appreciation potential." Mr. Dean and other analysts say that investors are getting too hung up on the short term, and that long-term prospects for the electronics contract-manufacturing industry have never been stronger. Indeed, increasing numbers of electronics makers are doing what once was unthinkable -- they're paying the likes of Jabil to make the brains of their products rather than doing it in-house. For personal-computer makers, for example, it's often less expensive to turn over portions of their manufacturing to a Jabil than to continue performing those functions in-house. Furthermore, contractors can adjust their production volumes faster than large manufacturers when consumer demand is rising or falling. Jabil's revenue growth reflects this outsourcing trend. In the fiscal years 1993 to 1997, the company's sales tripled to $978.1 million. Of course, such flexibility can also work against Jabil when its customers cut orders. In January 1996, for instance, Jabil announced that a major customer was reducing its business, causing the company's shares to plunge 44% over the next few days in intraday trading. Though the stock later recovered, that incident, and the slump in Asia, underscore the risks inherent in technology investing, and Jabil's exposure to the health of its customers. Still, analysts reason that based on Jabil's financial strength and increasing visibility throughout the industry -- the company has established a reputation as a very cost efficient and reliable manufacturer -- it can achieve 30% earnings growth regardless of Asia's short-term impact. Jabil's move last week to the New York Stock Exchange from Nasdaq may lead to fewer wild swings in its share price. The Big Board's more orderly trading "limits the volatility to some extent," says Mr. Savage of BT Alex. Brown. Jabil also hopes to raise its profile among international investors who might otherwise dismiss Nasdaq stocks as too young and risky. Company executives are providing more detailed earnings guidance to analysts as well, reducing the likelihood of the massive upside surprises that in recent years have attracted short-term traders and contributed to the stock's volatility. In the days following the company's mid-March announcement that it had caught the Asian bug, some analysts rushed to downgrade Jabil, reasoning that there wasn't much of a catalyst to bolster the stock. The news was a double whammy of sorts because it came on the heels of sluggish demand by some computer-networking clients that are in the midst of product transitions. But some Jabil investors took a longer view. And now, the company's pending purchase of certain printer-related manufacturing assets from Hewlett-Packard is causing some analysts to come around, too. Yesterday, Robert Stone, an analyst at Cowen & Co. in Boston, raised his rating on Jabil's shares to "buy" from "neutral," citing the acquisition's potential to improve the company's earnings. In a May 12 research report, Mr. Stone increased his per-share earnings estimate for fiscal 1999 by 14 cents to $2.38 and established a new 12-month price target of $60 to $63 a share.