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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marginmike who wrote (30959)	5/26/1999 7:11:00 AM
From: JGoren	Respond to of 152472

Lower debt cost may only affect new debt, so won't see any higher profit for awhile; on the other side, market interest rates up. Dependng on the old rates, we might see some refinancing. Sale of infra division reduces the need for debt to finance infra purchases. We might see some increased use of long-term debt by the company to finance plant and equipment.

To: marginmike who wrote (30959)	5/26/1999 8:56:00 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

And furthermore (regarding improved rating on QCOM's debt) -- I think there is still some population of investors out there who do the following when "checking out" a stock : Instead of looking at the Internet (or what Wired magazine thinks), they will check out the (print form) S & P Stock Guide (unchanged in format (and "technology") for literally decades). One item of data for each company in the Stock Guide is the "S & P Common Ranking and Preferred Rating." Although this is not exactly the same thing as what started this question, it is similar. It is a general assessment of financial stability and what I think of as "is this actually a 'real' company ?" (In my most recent copy of the Stock Guide (January 1998), Qualcomm has a rating of "B" (with an up arrow next to it; an improvement from B- previously, I guess)). The (potential) Moody's rating increase on Qualcomm should be expected to cause some marginal improvement in the number of buyers for Qualcomm stock, due to a few incremental people and institutions now feeling "comfortable" with the company. I think this is much more important than the (possible) slight savings on debt servicing expense (due to a higher Moody's rating). (Sorry this is such a windbag response). Jon.