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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (51860)	7/17/1998 1:26:00 PM
From: VICTORIA GATE, MD	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 176387

Mohan Marette I JUST SOLD 75% ( 11K) DELL STOCK @ 117 1/2 i'm done vg

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (51860)	7/17/1998 11:53:00 PM
From: Boplicity	Respond to of 176387

AUSTIN, Texas (July 17) - Dell Computer Corp. Chairman and Founder Michael Dell walked on stage to a standing ovation from shareholders Friday and gave them a reassuring message: Don't worry, be happy. He said there was no reason to think Dell's eye-popping performance would end anytime soon and promised that the company's soaring stock would continue to be a good investment. Dell said shareholders had enjoyed a 2,600 percent return in the last three years, ''which positions Dell as the No. 1 performing stock among the 100 largest publicly traded companies over the past one year, three years, five years and 10 years. ''Our shareholders have been and will continue to be rewarded in the future,'' he said. Friday's annual meeting marked the unofficial 10th anniversary of Dell becoming a publicly traded company. Michael Dell predicted that the computer industry would grow at a rate of 15 percent annually for the foreseeable future, but that his company would expand at a far faster pace. He preached about the beauties of the direct, build-to-order sales model he developed as a college student in the 1980s and said the company would pursue new ways to reach customers directly, especially through the Internet. ''A year ago our sales on the Internet were about $1 million a day. We are now selling about $6 million a day on the Internet,'' Dell said. ''And this is not just a U.S. phenomenon. Our business in Europe is selling about $1 million a day.'' Dell also said the company continued to expand its overall overseas business by expanding into new areas such as China and South America. He said the Asian economic crisis had not affected Dell sales. ''Last year our sales (outside the U.S.) were $4.3 billion. This year we believe it will be over $6 billion,'' he said. ''We believe these (overseas) markets have tremendous potential for future growth.'' Dell Computer earned $944 million, or $1.28 a share, on revenues of $12.3 billion in fiscal 1998. The company split its stock 2-for-1 twice in the past year, and the shares gained $3 to $116.75 in afternoon trading on Nasdaq. Shareholders, looking toward yet another possible split, Friday approved a management proposal to increase the number of authorized Dell shares to 3 billion, up from the current 1 billion. The company has repurchased 160 million shares in the past two years and is currently authorized to buy back another 40 million over the next six quarters, Chief Financial Officer Tom Meredith said. He said Dell uses 60 percent to 70 percent of its cash flow to buy back stock and would continue at that level because the company views it as a way of giving shareholders a non-cash, non-taxable dividend. Dell has about 633 million shares outstanding, according to Standard & Poor's. Michael Dell said the company did not plan to get into an unprofitable battle with competitors to offer a computer for less than $1,000 because Dell customers were more interested in getting the latest technology than in breaking that price barrier. ''We're not selling an $800 computer,'' he said. ''I would not mistake that strategy (of selling computers below $1,000) as a brilliant way to expand the market, but rather as a way of eliminating inventory that has not sold.'' Before and after the meeting, Dell, a 33-year-old college dropout now worth billions of dollars, greeted long lines of shareholders who shook his hand, asked for autographs and had their picture taken with him.