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Technology Stocks : Micrel (MCRL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Adelantado who wrote (125)	7/24/1998 8:14:00 AM
From: Anaxagoras	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 268

Actually earnings came in two cents above estimates, quite nice. In fact management used the expression "outstanding quarter" repeatedly, although the enthusiasm of analysts on the call was a lot less, though still positive. Actually, the CEO was pretty annoyed that Micrel still wasn't getting the respect he felt it deserved. There is a time to fight for respect, but I don't think the Street bought it. There were a lot of firms on the Q&A, big (H&Q, Montgomery, ML, Pru, Lehman, etc) and small alike. Anyway, although management praised itself itself (rightfully so) on its prescient move to pick up slack in the standard products biz by increasing foundry and custom work, analysts just sounded ho-hum about this; don't know why. What was clear is that they sounded a bit suspicious about why/how Micrel was doing so well in their standard products biz and how they were able to increase their foundry business apparently at will. Management was asked several times why they were doing better than their competitors, and they just didn't give an answer they liked. Management kept saying the proof is in the numbers, which to a degree is correct (but we know that accounting isn't that rigid an art, alas). Anyway, I'm disappointed in how the market reacted, but I'm not particularly concerned with the company's reported results because their accounting as far as revenue recognition is concerned is pretty conservative. Oh yeah, there was also a good deal of discussion about backlog and lead times. Interestingly, although book-to-bill was < 1, bookings were up in the front end due to shortened lead times. This puzzled some on the call, but all this means is that since lead times have shortened due to general industry shift in business models of customers moving to JIT (just-in-time) delivery, bookings are up nicely on the front end (next 90 days), but overall still not ideal in the back end, and visibility any further out is poor. There were other concerns expressed, as well they might be during this troubling time for the industry, but they were fielded reasonably and as best as possible, IMO, given the overall business climate. Management is doing their job quite well, IMO, but they still will need to prove themselves to a highly sceptical crowd- I don't know whether they'll get the respect they deserve until the next slump hits the industry and analysts can look back and say "Boy, the way they handled the '97-'98 Asia crisis was sweet! Management is understandably disappointed in its lack of respect, but there's not much they can do about it, and the CEO might have been a bit defensive on the issue. Anaxagoras

To: Adelantado who wrote (125)	7/24/1998 10:23:00 PM
From: Jim Willie CB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 268

probably the word "cautious" since shorter lead times means more uncertainty farther out my take -- time to hit the beach, read the stock prices over coffee and smell of surf and sand... with so much doubt, take profits if got'em or pull out money in dont got'em... this stock has a great future but hugely uncertain industry right now this latest chip sector rally was the hokiest sham I have seen in years... Intel disappoints with higher sales, lower earnings, closes plants, shrinking margins, and the gaggle of chip stocks (even equips!!!) rallies like drunken sailors... book/bill came in at 74%... very uncertain industry right now... most rallying stocks are in process of reversing respect will come later for sure for this jewel / Jim Willie