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

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (73487)	10/21/1998 1:35:00 PM
From: Dell-icious	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Mohan, this is what Herb Greenberg had to say in his column on thestreet.com: PC Pitfalls: Of all PC makers, Dell (DELL:Nasdaq) so far has escaped getting lumped in as headed for trouble by the prophets of doom. However, that may be changing. Yesterday Piper Jaffray's Ashok Kumar, fresh from his not-so-glowing comments about Compaq (CPQ:NYSE), told his firm's sales force that he's getting indications that there has been a pause in information technology spending by corporations. He's not the first analyst to issue this warning, but the tone of his comments was ominous. "What we are hearing is that the sentiment from large and medium-sized businesses, regarding their commitments, is getting negative," he told me late yesterday. "Most companies used to go to the tail end of the quarter and say, 'We'll give you a discount, just take the units.' MIS managers were obliged to do it. Now that's not happening, and this is the first quarter that has happened in a long time." Did Kumar also say, as I had heard, that Dell salesmen aren't making their quotas so far this quarter? He declined to comment, as did Salomon Smith Barney analyst Rich Gardner, who reportedly told his customers that he had picked up a change in tone by Dell's investor relations department. Kumar made it a point to say that he's not expecting any change in Dell's current quarter, nor has he downgraded the stock, something that was widely rumored; rather he thinks this could be an issue for all PC companies going forward. Compaq's sales have already started to miss Wall Street estimates. All eyes will be on Gateway's (GTW:NYSE) sales (not earnings) Thursday, followed by Dell's earnings Nov. 12. A Dell spokesman sticks by the company's longstanding policy of not forecasting future results. He reiterated the company's prior comments that it expects to grow at a multiple of the industry and that the Year 2000 debacle may actually help its sales.

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (73487)	10/21/1998 1:52:00 PM
From: JRI	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Mohan, Michael W...Just to close out the convo... As you know, it is up to the individual investor to hold analysts, stock market prognosticators responsible for their good (or bad) calls....Relying on others (CNBC?) to do this for the investor would be a grevious mistake.. I would stress again, it is these people's job to analyze data and to forecast for their clients....that is what they do.....it is impossible (in my view) to fault them if they are using reliable methods, and making forecasts based on that data.....the problem is, that it occurs all too often (in the investment community) that forecasts are made, manipulated (on individual stocks, market) with the goal of making a buck on the trading side and/or investment banking side....this is wrong (ethically), but in some cases, it is not even wrong legally (I believe)....I doubt seriously Kumar and his group are doing this here......(BTW- I obviously think some securities laws should be changed, but we have to invest based on the current framework..) Back to Kumar, I still dont see where he did anything wrong...he is paid to make these observations...it is up to us to remember his track record...he has a good one, therefore, one should give him a little more thought (then most)......you are right, Mohan, most analysts dont know what they are talking about....but occasionally, they do stumble onto something, or do some good (great) research.......As for HQ, I was not addressing that issue....If H&Q did make false and misleading statements (and this can be proven), then they should be punished (thru the proper channels...SEC)...Wasnt this (though) a rumor? Final point (if it wasnt clear before): One should not be trading (short-term) if one is not willing to live with the risk of a rumor burning a stock (short-term)....Holding long-term eliiminates most of this risk......I have probably spoken too much on this......I am done <g>