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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ian@SI who wrote (22915)	8/12/1998 11:10:00 AM
From: Fortinwit	Respond to of 70976

TSC covers AMAT (subscribers only): thestreet.com Synopsis: ...the good news wasn't that good and the bad news -- well, the bad news was bad.... ...Min Pang, an analyst at Cowen, was most surprised by the tone of the call, which he described as downright depressing... the company's book-to-bill ratio was 0.69, suggesting product shipments are outpacing new orders. "That's terrible," Pang said. "Over the last two-and-a-half months, business has been declining at an alarming rate." ... ...But the volume of orders -- if not their gross numbers -- cheered Brett Hodess, a NationsBanc Montgomery Securities analyst. New orders -- considered the company's most vital sign -- totaled $608 million, slightly higher than the preannounced figure of $600 million... ...One money manager who does not have a stake in AMAT said the Taiwan market seemed to be improving... ...AMAT shaved 10 days off outstanding sales, which means it's doing a better job collecting money owed. And AMAT is sitting on $1.6 billion in cash, which she called "excellent"...But her fund won't be buying any time soon. The manager tends to look for names that promise significant growth within three years -- and that ain't AMAT...But she doesn't think Applied Materials stock will weaken further... F.