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Technology Stocks : Brightpoint - CELL -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grabs who wrote (1488)	3/19/1999 11:04:00 AM
From: Grabs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1999

From Motley Fool today: The Daily Trouble - A review of a company whose stock price has been cut in half within the last year. Mar 19, 1999 Brightpoint Inc. (Nasdaq:CELL - news) Phone: 1-800-952-CELL Website: www.brightpoint.com Price (3/18/99): $6 11/16 HOW DID IT FIND TROUBLE? Like a cellular phone call coming undone in a sea of static, shares of Brightpoint have been breaking up. At least the company spoke with some degree of clarity when it pre-announced that earnings for this quarter would be "approximately zero." It was not a number investors were expecting to dial with analysts projecting earnings of $0.22 a share for the March 1999 quarter. While business continues to look strong in the U.S., international woes seem to have swallowed up any trace of profitability this quarter. Approximately. Since January the company has been dealt a series of blows overseas. There have been supply problems in Asia, primarily in China and Taiwan. Also, the once lucrative Brazilian market has suffered in the currency translation since Brazil's real was devalued earlier this year. Shareholders have been on a wild ride with this one. A year ago the shares were at $20 before crashing down to $5 in October. Three months later the stock had nearly quadrupled back to the old highs. No stranger to volatility, the shares have once again returned to the mid-single digits of October. Who said the golden age of wireless would take on the form of a roller coaster? BUSINESS DESCRIPTION Brightpoint is engaged in the sale of wireless equipment worldwide, with handsets accounting for 81% of revenues last year. With headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana, the company also provides outsourcing services like inventory management and prepaid solutions to equipment makers and network operators. FINANCIAL FACTS Income Statement 12-month sales: $1,628.6 million 12-month income: $39.7 million* 12-month EPS: $0.74* Profit Margin: 2.4% Market Cap: $355 .1 million (*Excludes one-time gains and charges) Balance Sheet Cash: $49.5 million Current Assets: $549.2 million Current Liabilities: $188.1 million Long-term Debt: $286.7 million Ratios Price-to-earnings: 9.0 Price-to-sales: 0.2 HOW COULD YOU HAVE SEEN IT COMING? Wall Street didn't see this one coming. Nine of the ten analysts following the company had the stock rated as a "strong buy" the day Brightpoint made its dim earnings warning. BT Alex. Brown had even upgraded the shares just last month. The same market forces that sent the stock tumbling more than 75% last year were still lingering. In 1997 the Asian market accounted for 42% of Brightpoint total sales. A year later the region made up less than a third of Brightpoint's take and has continued to diminish through the last quarter. With crumbling currencies in Asia and South America to deal with, the life of a company in which exports account for the lion's share of sales has been difficult. This is not a hot news item. Brazil's real was marked down in January, and the Asian flu has been festering for more than a year now. Brightpoint was certainly not immune, and it set itself up to be quite exposed to the malady. WHERE TO FROM HERE? Buy, CELL, or Hold? Brightpoint's logo reads, "It's a wireless world, where can we take you?" Now that investors know where Brightpoint has taken them, the bigger question is: Can they still get a return ticket? The malaise overseas has created an opportunity given the company's domestic success. Granted, Brightpoint won't earn the $1.05 a share that was projected for this year. It should also be noted that the company is struggling this quarter in Europe where the factors may not be as external as the problems in Asia and South America. While sales for this quarter will come in a bit higher than last year's first quarter, they will still be down 20-25% sequentially. That is not exactly a groundswell of positive momentum. However, the company has begun to diversify. Handset sales as a percentage of total sales has been trimmed from 90% in 1997 to 81% last year. The growing services should help defray some of the supplier concerns. Given the stock's erratic ways, any kind of return to international stability will probably send the shares right back up that hill, but are you patient enough to wait for the ride to start? -Rick Aristotle Munarriz

To: Grabs who wrote (1488)	3/20/1999 2:56:00 AM
From: scouser	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1999

Well, what I say is none these pea brains saw the drop so they aint seeing the rise, changing the tune is sort of like locking the barn door afer the horse has left. By definition these guys are not worth reading. Isn't there a site where they get monkeys to throw darts at the the newspaper stock list and they ouperformed all thes guys? Ok enough already. Now down to business. Sice the drop the T/A shows there has been all positve buying meaning most of the the orders were at the bid ,there are simply too many people panicking. The MACD is still above the zero line , a great sign showing again lots of buyers keeping the bid/ask close. The ULT oscilattor is ramping up- just like before tuesdays run-up. The volume accumulation is not negative -another good sign of healthy buying. As soon as the sellers start to dry up , up goes the price ,then people will look at the price chart and say wow those guys must have had 2/1 split :)