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Technology Stocks : Hutchinson Technology, Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Marconi who wrote (1251)	5/13/1999 5:07:00 AM
From: Z Analyzer	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1487

<< HTCH is not a battered down stock particularly either. At 12-13 recently yes, at 20's to 30's no.>> I am tired of three reading this sort of nonsense in posts. Comparing Hutchinson at its recent price of 20 to last summer's low of 12 is like comparing apples and oranges. It is ludicrous to think that Hutchinson should be back to those levels. Let's review the differences between value then and now: Hutchinson completed a very successful secondary offering increasing book value from 12 to 19 dollars per share. The successful secondary offering took Hutchinson from being cash constrained and in violation of financial covenants to being cash rich to point where they should be repurchasing shares at current levels. Last fall at Comdex, people counted six companies attempting to produce some type of wireless suspension. Today, it looks as if Hutchinson is the clear winner in wireless suspensions with TSA and is already experiencing success in selling TSA flexures to others for incorporation into their drives. In short, it appears that Hutchinson is well on their way to making TSA the proprietary industry standard which they have claimed it would be. Hutchinson has gone from losing massive amounts of money on TSA production into a very rapid ramp of gross margin improvement which the March quarter demonstrated has great promise of achieving target gross margin levels in the very near future, probably as soon as volumes return. Several months ago several units had achieved production volumes of 400,000 TSAs per week, Hutchinson's objective. All this despite TSA crossing the line to profitability within the last six months. So I conclude by saying that the difference in Hutchinson between last summer and now is the difference between night and day and that Hutchinson at 20 dollars, for those who bothered to understand the differences, was a better buy than Hutchinson last summer at 13 dollars. -Z