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

To: Bandit19 who wrote (98731)	2/13/1999 12:30:00 PM
From: MR. PANAMA (I am a PLAYER)	Respond to of 176387

Maybe he is talkin fer da QUEEN.....Lizzy always says We da People.......

To: Bandit19 who wrote (98731)	2/13/1999 12:39:00 PM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Round Rock, Texas, Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Dell Computer Corp. shares fell 12 percent, their biggest drop since August, on concern that the No. 1 direct-seller of personal computers will report disappointing fourth-quarter sales Tuesday. Dell, the best-performing stock on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index for the past three years, tumbled 12 to 89 7/8 in trading of 66.4 million, making it the most active U.S. stock. Dell's drop contributed to a 3.5 percent decline in the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index. ''Competitive pressure intensified, especially in the corporate market,'' Dan Niles, a technology analyst with BancBoston Robertson Stephens, said in a report this morning. Niles, who has a ''market perform'' rating on the stock, said Dell could fall to 80 ''in the near term.'' Niles predicts that fourth-quarter sales will be $5.2 billion, short of his $5.5 billion forecast. He blamed the lower- than-expected revenue on unit sales that lagged his expectations and on lower average selling prices for PCs. Prices fell in part because Dell rivals such as Compaq Computer Corp. stepped up its own efforts to sell computers directly to customers over the phone and the Internet. The decline in Dell, one of the most closely watched technology stocks, drove many other computer, software and networking stocks lower. No. 1 computer-chip maker Intel Corp. fell 6 3/4 to 126 1/2. Top networking company Cisco Systems Inc. fell 5 13/16 to 99 1/16. Compaq fell 2 1/16 to 42 3/4. Slowdown Niles was traveling today and couldn't immediately be reached for comment on the rationale for his report. Big investors in Dell said company executives haven't said anything recently that would prompt an analyst to lower quarterly sales estimates for the company, which is based in the Austin, Texas, suburb of Round Rock. ''Dell has been talking to investors publicly in the past few days and no indication was given about softness in the corporate market,'' said portfolio manager Lisa Rapuano at Legg Mason Fund Advisers, which owns 7.5 million Dell shares. Chief Executive Michael Dell spoke at a Goldman, Sachs & Co. technology conference in New York this week and said he expects growth in unit sales in the overall PC market to slow to about 17 percent annually in coming years from about 19 percent for the past three. Dell, he said, will far exceed those rates. ''I'm confident Dell will continue to grow significantly faster than the industry,'' Dell said. The company was criticized in July for making comments on a conference call that sent its shares down 4.4 percent. The call was available largely to analysts and institutional investors. Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, said at the time that such a practice ''perpetuates the belief that the little guy doesn't get a fair shake on Wall Street.'' Slowdown Niles isn't alone in his concern about slowing growth at Dell. Analyst Ashok Kumar at Piper Jaffray Inc. in Minneapolis has been warning for several months that Dell's meteoric growth is slowing. Kumar said he's concerned because U.S. companies -- Dell's biggest customers -- are paring computer purchases. Many companies are using more money for software and consulting to prepare for expected Year 2000 computer problems, which is limiting the amount they can spend on hardware, said Kumar, who still rates Dell shares ''buy.'' ''Their growth has clearly started to moderate,'' Kumar said. Companies' ''hardware purchases are slowing'' Kumar expects Dell's revenue to increase 40 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter, compared with 56 percent average growth during the previous eight quarters, by his calculations. Moreover, the rivals that Dell trounced in years past are fighting back with low prices and new products, Kumar said. Dell's sales increased about 3 percent in North America from the third quarter, while the market overall grew about 16 percent and Compaq surged about 30 percent, Kumar estimates. In the calendar fourth quarter, which ends a month before Dell's fiscal fourth quarter, Dell's PC shipments rose 56 percent from the year-earlier period, according to International Data Corp. However, the report also indicated Dell's sales growth slowed in the last two quarters of 1998. Earnings Dell is expected to earn 31 cents a share in the quarter ended in Jan. 29, the average of estimates gathered by First Call Corp. That's up from $285 million, or a split-adjusted 20 cents, in the year-earlier period. Kumar declined to speculate on how low Dell shares would go. ''Dell has always been a religion,'' Kumar said. ''People may stick their head in their sand and hang on.'' Dell's decline comes after executives including Michael Dell sold some 1.5 million of the company's shares last month. CEO Dell, who is also the company's founder, sold 648,000 shares at $76.60 to $78.75 on Jan. 7, according to the Washington Service, which tracks insider buying and selling. Even with today's decline, Dell's shares have more than tripled in the last 12 months. The shares closed at 27 11/16 a year ago today. Analysts at Prudential Securities and Credit Suisse First Boston Inc. put out reports maintaining their ''strong buy'' ratings on the company. 16:22:12 02/12/1999 For those who may have missed it wading through all the posts. --Bill