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Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn McDougall who wrote (11170)	5/5/1999 2:42:00 PM
From: pax	Respond to of 18016

I know its up but that much?

To: Glenn McDougall who wrote (11170)	5/5/1999 2:53:00 PM
From: pax	Respond to of 18016

I must have woken up Homer Simpson at the conversion house, TSE rising to match the Ameribucks.

To: Glenn McDougall who wrote (11170)	5/5/1999 4:37:00 PM
From: zbyslaw owczarczyk	Respond to of 18016

Comments from BancBoston Robertson Stephens Inc.: Kanata, Ontario, May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Newbridge Networks Corp. shares plunged 22 percent after the No. 5 maker of networking equipment said fiscal fourth-quarter profit lagged already-reduced forecasts because of problems filling orders. Newbridge fell 7 15/16 to 28 7/8, making it the biggest decliner on the New York Stock Exchange. Per-share earnings in the quarter ended Sunday were 12 U.S. cents to 14 cents. Newbridge was expected to earn 21 cents, the average analyst estimate from First Call Corp. Orders for new networking products were strong, yet the company failed to make and ship its equipment fast enough to meet demand. Newbridge has tried to restore investor confidence after a spate of similar warnings in the past two years. It hired Alan Lutz, a former Compaq Computer Corp. executive, as president last June, and developed new products for its fastest-growing markets. ''They got the hard part done, but blew the easy part,'' said Patrick Houghton, an analyst at Sutro & Co., who rates Newbridge ''buy.'' Kanata, Ontario-based Newbridge warned in February that fourth-quarter profit would miss then-estimates of 26 cents a share. Sales in the quarter were about C$460 million (US$317.1 million), the company said. Houghton was expecting Newbridge to earn 22 cents a share on revenue of about US$330 million. Late Orders The maker of gear that helps link computers and move data around networks said it got two-thirds of its sales in the last month of the quarter and wasn't able to fill all the orders because of trouble managing its supply, a problem that began in the third quarter. ''We had problems converting a strength in orders into a strength in sales,'' Lutz told analysts on a conference call yesterday. Orders totaled C$550 million in the quarter, he said. Lutz said he expects Newbridge to have the order-processing problem fixed by the end of the fiscal second quarter. Still, Newbridge has warned of disappointing earnings in five quarters during the past two years. The company was hurt last year by a drop in sales of its older products, which are among its most profitable. ''If you keep making the same mistakes, people become skeptical,'' said Esmeralda Silva, an analyst at market research firm International Data Corp. Since arriving 11 months ago, Lutz has changed the guard at Newbridge, getting rid of some managers put in place by Chief Executive Terry Matthews and bringing in outside help from competitors such as Nortel Networks Corp. Paul Silverstein, an analyst at BancBoston Robertson Stephens Inc., said he doesn't expect the latest warning to jeopardize Lutz's position or his authority as second-in-command to Matthews, who ceded day-to-day control to Lutz. ''Alan came into a leaky ship,'' said Silverstein, who rates Newbridge a ''buy.'' ''This is not a guy who sits on his hands.'' Booming ATM Sales Fourth-quarter sales of the company's networking products were about C$320 million, while voice-equipment sales were about C$140 million, Lutz said. Newbridge expects fiscal first-quarter revenue to be higher, helped in part by the backlog of orders. Demand for asynchronous transfer mode, or ATM, switches is booming. ATM switches let companies combine voice and data on a single network. Newbridge said orders for its data-networking products rose 30 percent from the previous quarter. ''The flagship products are on fire,'' Silverstein said. In the year-ago quarter, Newbridge had profit from operations of C$32 million, or C$0.18 cents a share (US$0.13) Sales were C$395.2 million. The company will report final results for the quarter June 1. NYSE/AMEX delayed 20 min. NASDAQ delayed 15 min.