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

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (79892)	11/13/1998 1:20:00 PM
From: KM	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 176387

Top Stories: Dell Squabbles with Analyst as Stock Slides By Eric Moskowitz Staff Reporter 11/13/98 1:04 PM ET Ashok Kumar strikes back. He said he was kicked off Dell's (DELL:Nasdaq) conference call Thursday for making some skeptical comments earlier in the week. So the Piper Jaffray analyst responded with a downgrade. Kumar cut Dell Friday morning to buy from strong buy, pointing out that he expects "growth rates to moderate going forward" and that the stock reflects "fair valuation" over the short term. (Piper Jaffray hasn't done any underwriting for Dell.) Chairman Michael Dell was grilled on CNBC's "Squawk Box" this morning about why Kumar was not allowed on the call. Michael Dell said he knew nothing about it and that his company has not banned anyone from conference call. Kumar wasn't immediately available for comment this afternoon. Dell's senior manager of corporate public relations, T.R. Reid, Friday countered Kumar's claims. "We checked the roster of 460 analysts and both Ashok and his assistant were registered for the call," says Reid. "We don't kick people off calls." Kumar said this week that the big question mark of the quarter was going to be weakness in sequential worldwide PC desktop growth. Although Dell doesn't break out these numbers, Kumar wrote this morning that "this quarter's sequential growth rate of 8% underperformed the market by 20%." Kumar had warned of such a slowdown earlier in the week. Dell's overall revenue -- including its profitable server and notebook divisions -- rose 11% sequentially and 51% year-over-year for the third quarter ended Nov. 2. Kumar is keeping a close watch on sequential revenue growth. Sequential revenue comparisons "are much earlier indications of how a company is doing" than year-over-year comparisons, says Kumar. For the fourth quarter, Kumar expects revenue to rise 12% from the third quarter, well below Dell's 17% sequential increase in the same period last year. Dell shares, which fell 4% yesterday, were off another 4, or 6%, at 65 1/4 Friday.