To: uu who wrote (14763 ) 9/4/1998 1:40:00 AM From: Andy M. Respond to of 25814
Addi, One way to look at the Brown report, which is more speculative than most in that it tries not just to predict the next quarter or so but the trends for the whole industry, is to compare it to Kurlak's reasons for upgrading LSI a few months ago or Shane's analysis of the company back in March. All three analysts are knowledgeable and defended their opinions well. It's awfully hard to know who's right but why should the negative view be any more final and absolute than the positive views were a few months ago? In other words, why give an analyst absolute credibility in sounding a stock's death knell? We couldn't invest the positive views with absolute credibility. They seemed awfully plausible at the time--just as plausible as this new negative scenario, in fact. But they proved at least temporarily wrong. Kurlak had to reverse himself. Yet why trust the reversal more than the original optimism? What's clouding the picture for LSI is the general downturn in semis and questions over whether some of their hot new products--DVD, Digital cameras, fibre channel etc., will catch on. LSI has confounded analysts, and itself, in significant ways. Whether it confounds them to the upside or the downside doesn't matter to the little point I'm making. The fact is, a year ago, especially a year and a half ago, no analyst was anywhere near to predicting how LSI's actual earnings would turn out in 1998. That's what's maddening about predicting the movements of individual stocks--even ones you think you've researched a lot and think you know well. But what it means is that any bold analyst's prediction can turn out to be awfully wrong, as you yourself have said a million times. The negative scenario makes so much sense right now because the stock is in the toilet and management just warned again, but Wilf also said that the long term outlook was still good. Is Wilf unaware of what Brown is talking about? I doubt it. But of course Wilf has been wrong before and so have these analysts. Where does that leave us? not knowing for sure, which is a damn uncomfortable position to be in with these huge losses most of us have. Sorry for this rambling post but contemplating my losses on this stock has turned my brain to cheese. BTW, Gruntal I think downgraded to buy a few weeks ago, and lowered the price target to $30. It was posted on this thread. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here. Good luck. Andy