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

To: michael modeme who wrote (79942)	11/13/1998 2:41:00 PM
From: KM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Options Buzz: Dell Earnings Put Hurt on Call Buyers By Dan Colarusso Senior Writer 11/13/98 2:30 PM ET The traders who were expecting a slam-dunk earnings report from Dell (DELL:Nasdaq) got slapped down yesterday and saw the value of their call options deflate this morning. Call buyers sent volume on Dell's November 70 calls to almost 20,000 on Thursday, anticipating a big runup in the wake of its quarterly earnings report. While consensus estimates were 27 cents, many expected the box maker to report 30 or higher, and they paid up to 4 1/8 ($412.50) for calls that were thisclose to being in-the-money. Those same November 70 calls, however, traded more than 13,000 contracts this morning as, experts suppose, yesterday's call buyers salvaged the scrap remaining. "These are the guys who were buying expecting a big surprise," says CIBC Oppenheimer senior options strategist Michael Schwartz, who added that a fair amount of traders also bought straddle positions, to get the same exposure to a downside move if earnings disappointed. "They were foolish if they played it on one side; they would have needed an enormous move to make it pay off," Schwartz says. Instead, Dell reported 28 cents a share and the stock price shed 3 1/2 to hit 65 3/8 by midday. And those calls that were bought somewhere between 3 1/2 ($350) and 4 1/8 ($412.50) Thursday were going to 5/8 ($62.50) today. "It's not an easy trade," Schwartz says. At the option's low price of 3 1/2, buyers of the 70 calls would have needed Dell to run to higher than 73 after the earnings announcement. "I had heard that a lot of the Dell buying was newcomers who expected the stock to outperform after earnings, so those could be the sellers today," says R.F. Lafferty options boss Jay Shartsis. "It's dragging some of the other techs down as well." Dell's December 60 puts traded more than 2,400 contracts but rose just 1/8 ($12.50) to 2 5/8 ($262.50), showing interest but not a stampede to play Dell for any big slide. (I got 1 3/8 for mine and felt lucky getting that)

To: michael modeme who wrote (79942)	11/13/1998 4:25:00 PM
From: jhg_in_kc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Re:<Kumar is screwed up. Dell's sequential revenue growth was 11.2% (annualized that's 53%), and the earnings sequential growth was 11.0% (annualized 52%) -- these are inline with, and above earlier sequential growth rates. DELL's growth is NOT slowing down.> If this is the case what in God's name did Kumar base his assertion on. Does anyone have any idea? Or did he just ad lib a provocative remark with no basis in fact at all. Piper Jaffray customers out there? What's the story on this Kumar fumar. (smoke) jhg

To: michael modeme who wrote (79942)	11/13/1998 5:35:00 PM
From: jim kelley	Respond to of 176387

Re: Kumar Kumar also stated that sales were off in Europe due to England. However, sales are actually up in Europe to 68%. Kumar said he based his statements on IDC data. However, it is not clear that that is what he actually did. The IDC data was a little low worldwide but not badly off.

To: michael modeme who wrote (79942)	11/13/1998 5:49:00 PM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 176387

Michael, I think it is a mistake to focus on sequential sales. I think you need to look at quarter over quarter sales growth, and although I don't have the numbers in front of me, I believe that this quarter grew more slowly compared to the same quarter last year. But this is a non issue. Anybody who believes that Dell could maintain 65% growth indefinitely is fooling himself. I look for growth to gradually slow barring new product sales. That's not a negative perspective. It is realistic. TTFN, CTC