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

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (102437)	2/18/1999 2:54:00 AM
From: powershred	Respond to of 176387

Uncle...while a quick reaction would heal the jarred egos...I highly doubt we will see the 95s any time soon...I feel there are still too many waiting to sell into strength. Besides, unless there is an excellent news, this cranky market is only making matters worse. In terms of setting expectations, I personally do not think they did anything wrong. Dell, unfortunately or fortunately, is one of the most followed and admired money tree around (I ran the numbers again last night comparing it to MSFT, INTC, CSCO, CPQ, IBM, GTW, EMC and I just shake my head in amazement of their efficiency to covert cash). While most people look at sequential revenue growth and P/Es for techies...I look at pure cash flow...and NO company comes close to them! Therefore, as far as I am concerned, as long as they keep on converting at historical pace, the top line does not concern me too much. After all, it is easier to grow a company from $1 sales to $100 and be called a genius than to grow a $18billion gorilla to $25 billion! Expectations btw. the two are completely different. What pissed me off more than anything was the timing of the whole thing. cheers.

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (102437)	2/18/1999 2:57:00 AM
From: SirVinny	Respond to of 176387

3rd LARGEST VOLUME in Nasdaq history ============================================== Reuters Story - February 17, 1999 17:01 NEW YORK, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The furious selloff in shares of Dell Computer Corp. on Wednesday added up to the third busiest session for a stock in Nasdaq history, Nasdaq officials said. Dell shares fell 7-3/16 to 81-9/16 on unofficial volume of about 112.2 million shares. Dell's fourth quarter results, reported after the markets closed Tuesday, disappointed investors. Net income rose 49 percent to $425 million, or 31 cents per diluted share, matching Wall Street estimates and up from $285 million, or 20 cents, in the year-ago period. But revenues rose 38 percent to $5.2 billion from $3.7 billion, confirming recent investor fears that the pace of sales growth was slowing from previous levels. Dell's volume total on Wednesday left the company behind only Oracle Corp. and Comparator Systems Corp., which has been delisted, near the top of heaviest one-day volume for stocks priced above $1 a share. Oracle holds the all-time Nasdaq record of 171,827,300 shares, set on Dec. 9, 1997, a day after the company stunned Wall Street with weaker than expected earnings. Comparator holds second place on the list with 152,047,000 shares, recorded on May 6, 1996. Soon after, Comparator shares were suspended when the Securities and Exchange Commission started an inquiry into its accounting. Comparator eventually settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the commission's charges of fraud.

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (102437)	2/18/1999 3:31:00 AM
From: KM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Shhhh! The Market Speaks By James J. Cramer 2/18/99 12:15 AM ET How could Hewlett-Packard (HWP:NYSE) and Dell (DELL:Nasdaq) "do the numbers" and still get slaughtered? Didn't The Journal mention that Hewlett topped the earnings per share bar by a huge amount? Didn't Dell "print" the right earnings per share and get punished by stupid sellers? All day today I read people on the boards and in my email say these points. Some people wanted me to write that Dell was really good -- I guess because they think I can counter the disappointment that management stated on the conference call. Let's put aside the possibility that a guy who discloses a long call position can have any credibility going forward if he writes that Dell was great. (And I value my credibility.) The reason why I didn't do it is because it would not be true. We have all gotten so savvy at understanding the whisper number and the Street estimate game that we forget what the Street really cares about: revenues! Earnings can be affected by tax rates, one-time gains, expense recognitions and charges. Revenues can be affected by sales. Sales can be affected by supply and demand. When in doubt, and unsure of the earnings, you look at the revenues. I will admit that I let out a cheer when Hewlett reported its "blow-out" earnings per share. But the always-cautious Jeff Berkowitz, my partner, immediately said "shhhhhh" as if it were inning 8 of a no-hitter and I was jinxing things. "Let's wait until we see the revenues. Let's wait until we see HOW they did it." Sure enough, the moment the revs came out we both wanted to puke. If this were a no-hitter, the pitcher just hung the curve! Our only hope in the stock was that the regular dead-tree press would fall for the headfake and highlight that the eps was good. They did and we were able to sell some stock higher, keeping the rest because we did not want to sell below $69. (Wrong, judging by where it went out.) Dell is tougher. People love Dell. How can you blame them? Dell has been a wealth-generation machine. But the machine needs oiling/rest/rehab. Does that mean I will never own Dell again? Of course not. Yesterday during the Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq) conference call after the market was closed, a firm traded a huge block of Dell at $75.5. I bought some, as I mentioned immediately in the chat, but I booted it three points up because I know how mutual fund managers despise revenue shortfalls. The tragic thing is that so many readers and emailers wanted to tell me how wrong I was about Dell. They seem to misunderstand the basic tenet of the game: I don't decide whether owning Dell is wrong, and neither do you or anybody else reading. The market decides it. And although the market can be wrong, it has spoken. It didn't like the number.