To: Beltropolis Boy who wrote (3965 ) 9/30/1998 12:40:00 PM From: Jay Rommel Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 7342
Briefing's take on the NT debacle NORTHERN TELECOM LTD. (NT) 31 1/2 -4 3/8. Once earning worries are let out of the bag, it is hard to stuff them back in. Or at least this seems to be the case following earlier earnings warnings by another large multinational equipment maker. Yesterday, this maker of telecommunications equipment indicated at an analysts meeting in New York that revenues for Q3 would be on the lighter side of Wall Street expectations, but noted that earnings for the period were still expected to come in line with Wall Street projections. Unfortunately, most analysts had bolted from the room after hearing the first part of the company's comment and failed to recognize that Nortel still expects Q3 earnings to come in line with Wall Street estimates of $0.38 a share. In the year-ago period, it earned $0.30 a share on revenues of $3.5 billion. Given a recent warning by the French telecom equipment maker Alcatel Alsthom, one can excuse analysts for jumping to conclusions. Yet, one day later, the stock continues to trade lower and has lost more than 22% of its value in less than 24 hours. It appears that while the company still expects Q3 and full-year earnings to come in line with market expectations, sales growth is slowing due to weaker demand from Asia and Europe. The company appears to have run into greater competition from rival Lucent Technologies (LU 70 5/8 -3 7/8), and has been on the short end of some wireless contracts in Europe. However,margins are still strong as Northern Telecom has managed to keep a lid on expenses. How long the company can manage to walk the high wire before earnings are affected remains to be seen. But it seems that the market has already made up its mind that NT will experience earnings problems before long, even though at present, NT still expects to meet Wall Street expectations, albeit on lower than projected revenue numbers. People, I was right to have sold at 48 ...exchange2000.com The bottom line is, it's Christmas again ... Call, write or telephone the 2 analyst that downgraded TLAB (I'm sure they are loading up as I write this) I am accumulating this baby at 37 - 38 .... I will see you guys at the 50 - 60s before year end "It's like deja vou all over again." ---Yogi Berra