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

To: larry who wrote (80496)	11/15/1998 5:13:00 PM
From: BGR	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Larry, I know that your post was intended for CTC but I hope that you won't mind if I take a shot at responding to your post as well: 1. Revenues were lower than many if not most analyst estimates. My understanding is that revenues are in line with historical revenue growth figures. Also, DELL must have beaten operating margin expectations as it came in with lower than expected revenues but better than expected earnings. Why is this not a positive? 2. Earnings barely beat estimates (if you use an extra decimal point they were 27.8 cents vs a 27 cent estimate). YOY Percentage EPS growth (64.7%) was actually way better than two of the previous 3 quarters (53.8%, 57.1% and 66.7 %). If analysts are doing a good job in estimating DELL's earnings growth, that doesn't mean that DELL is doing a bad job in growing earnings. Numbers tell the whole story. 3. Days Sales outstanding rose. Note CTC's posts. 4. Operating expenses as a per cent of revenues decreased (signalling that they held back on hiring and on other discretionary items to help them make the quarter). While that in general is the case for most companies, in DELL's case you have to adjust for the increase in internet sales as part of total revenue which reduces expenses. Get ready for more such reductions in future as such sales account for a larger share of DELL's revenues. 5. Gross margins declined and on the conference call they signaled that further declines are likely next year. I thought that gross margins were steady from last Q! Can you please check your numbers again? 6. Lastly, the balance sheet gave an indication that a large number of employees exercised options during the quarter. The irrelevancy of insider sales have been discussed to death in the past in this thread. Still no substantial new information to worry about. -Apratim.

To: larry who wrote (80496)	11/15/1998 8:04:00 PM
From: JRI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Larry- Just because operating expenses were lower, where is the proof that any hiring delays occurred? This is pure conjecture on your (short-sellers) part. My information shows Dell hiring at the same frantic pace as always.... Kumar was not intentionally left off the CC. Dell would not be that stupid. That would be bush-league.....Dell has been anything but bush-league in (almost) everything that they do since 1994......If you think they panic this much, IMO, you (the shorts) sorely underestimate what this story is all about. (Several of us had trouble logging on to their CC, post-fact).. I think, given management's history, you have to give them the benefit of the doubt here.... Just to be accurate, I believe the mean for analyst's estimates was 26.9, not 27.0.. I am not familiar with the statistics (of Dell's employees exercising options) on a quarterly basis....but we all know that a lot of individual investors panicked last quarter and got out of the market..(locking in gains, or losses)...This probably explains a good part of the effect.. You do raise some interesting questions, however, a lot of the air comes out of these balloons real quick (upon examination)...Short-sellers do have something to gain by spreading these rumors, dont they <g>...

To: larry who wrote (80496)	11/15/1998 9:08:00 PM
From: Voltaire	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

I think I will write Michael Dell and tell him to make sure you get those operational expenses up this next quarter. I have have been perusing this report for 3 days now and I knew if waited long enough, some long john genius would show me what was really wrong with it. Go back to Logic 101 sir. It is impossible for something that has not occurred to affect anything that has occurred. Something akin to proving a negative. But now that I think about it, that is exactly what you want to do! It is a melancholy thing to possess so many ideas, and yet to have no precise knowledge of the nature of ideas. Voltaire

To: larry who wrote (80496)	11/15/1998 11:05:00 PM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 176387

Larry, I think I have answered every one of the substantive comments in previous posts, but these comments are downright asinine: Dell's last earnings report showed signs of strain. Really? They looked robust to me. Better than 50% growth is strained? Revenues were lower than many if not most analyst estimates. Really? What was the consensus of estimates on revenues? Operating expenses as a per cent of revenues decreased (signalling that they held back on hiring and on other discretionary items to help them make the quarter). Hogwash. You expect operating revenues to decrease as a percent of sales because SG&A tend to be fixed or semivariable. Days Sales outstanding rose. That has nothing to do with earnings. I don't know where this stuff comes from, but it is really pretty silly. Dell doesn't have inventories or channels, so it can't play games with sales into the channel like its competitors can. That renders the DSO argument silly from an earnings perspective. Most of the arguments you have trotted out are the kinds of things people look to in justifying their own preconceived notions. BTW, Kumar's comments about growth of desktop machines was totally inaccurate, and I posted the real numbers (at least in terms of revenues) in a previous post. If you would provide actual numbers to support your claims I could more easily deal with them. TTFN, CTC