Earnings Revisions and Changes in Recommendations in Portfolio Holdings
Goldman Sachs cut Orbotech Ltd. (Nasdaq: ORBK), announced that it has
removed Orbotech from its U.S. recommended for purchase list as it
sees the automated optical inspection equipment maker's business
slowing faster than expected. It lowered its 2001 earnings per share
estimate to $2.53 from $2.80. It also lowered its 2001 revenue
outlook to $420 million from $444 million. Goldman Sachs added that
it believes inspection equipment revenue could see sharper slowdowns
than initially forecast. The brokerage said its longer-term view is
very positive
BreezeCOM Revises Outlook to Below Wall Street Estimates
BREEZECOM (Nasdaq:BRZE) revised its quarterly and yearly revenue
projections, which fell significantly below Wall Street consensus
estimates, and said the U.S. economic slowdown had temporarily
impacted growth. BreezeCOM said it expects break-even earnings and
revenues of $23 million to $26 million in the first quarter, an
increase of between 47% and 67% over year-ago revenues. The company
posted a per-share loss of 1 cent in the first quarter of 2000.
Earnings for the entire year 2001 should come in at 15 cents to 20
cents per share, the company said in a press release. BreezeCOM said
it expected $120 million in sales in 2001 as compared with an earlier
announced expectation of $150 million in revenues for all of 2001.
AudioCodes Revises its Forecasts Downwards
AUDIOCODES LTD. (Nasdaq:AUDC) warned that its first-quarter results
will be lower than anticipated due to the economic slowdown.
AudioCodes, based in Yahud, Israel, said in a release that it now
expects earnings of 5 to 7 cents a share. Analysts' consensus
forecast is 13 cents per share, according to a survey by research
firm First Call/Thomson Financial. The company also said it sees
first-quarter revenues of $13.5 million to $15 million, compared with
its previous estimate of $20 million. The company is currently in
several trials with several customers for the media gateway product
and revenues from this line could steadily increase in 2001. Growth
in the VoIP gateway area has historically come from the replacement
market, although implementation within the switching market and
within digital-loop carriers is a high-growth market and has the
potential to make solid contributions to VoIP gateway revenues
.
Comverse Beats Estimates and is Optimistic as to Future
Comverse Technology (Nasdaq:CMVT) reported 4Q EPS of $0.41 vs $0.30
in the prior year period, on revenues of $347 mln vs $252 mln in
1999. Analysts' mean estimates were $0.39, according to First Call.
2000 FY EPS were $1.47 vs $1.09 in the previous year. It announced
for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2000, ended January 31, 2001,
net income growth of 48%, to a record $76.9 million ($0.41 per
diluted share), compared with $51.9 million ($0.30 per diluted share)
for the fourth quarter of fiscal 1999. The company posted record
sales of $346, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2000, an increase of
37% over the fourth quarter of fiscal 1999. For fiscal year 2000,
ended January 31, 2001, net income was $264.0 million, or $1.47 per
diluted share (excluding one-time acquisition charges, net of tax, of
$14.8 million, or $0.08 per diluted share), an increase of 51% over
the net income, excluding one-time acquisition charges, of fiscal
1999. Sales for fiscal 2000 were $1.22 billion, an increase of 35%
over fiscal 1999. Kobi Alexander, Chairman and CEO of Comverse
Technology, stated, "Our fourth quarter results reflect our
leadership position in our major markets. More than 360 wireless and
wireline telecommunications network operators have selected
Comverse's enhanced services systems and software, which enable the
provision of revenue-generating value-added services including call
answering, wireless data and Internet-based information services,
prepaid wireless services, Internet-based unified messaging (voice,
fax, and email in a single mailbox), one-touch call return,
voice-controlled web portal and other speech recognition-based
services, and additional personal communication services. And despite
the U.S. economic slowdown, Comverse raised its outlook for its
current fiscal year. "As communication providers face increasing
competition and the commoditization of connectivity and transmission,
enhanced services will continue to play an increasingly important
role in the generation of revenues in our company," Comverse Chairman
and Chief Executive Kobi Alexander said during a conference call with
analysts. For the three months ended Jan. 31, the Israeli-based
company said earnings rose 48 percent to a record $76.9 million, or
41 cents a diluted share, from $51.9 million, or 30 cents, in the
same period a year earlier. Analysts had expected the company to earn
39 cents a diluted share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial.
Revenues rose 37 percent to $346.6 million from $252.1 million in the
fourth quarter 1999. Comverse supplies enhanced services systems and
software, which allow its 360 wireless and wireline
telecommunications service providers to offer their customers
revenue-generating value-added services including call answering,
wireless data and Internet-based information services. Customers can
also be offered prepaid wireless services, Internet-based unified
messaging (voice, fax, and e-mail in a single mailbox), one-touch
call return, voice-controlled web portal and other speech
recognition-based services, and additional personal communication
services.
Sales for fiscal 2000 rose 35 percent to $1.225 billion. "With strong sales and orders, good visibility, expanding market share and favorable market trends we are optimistic about our future," Chief Financial Officer David Kreinberg. With that, the company raised estimates for next fiscal quarter and the year and gave additional guidance for each of the quarters within the year. Comverse now expects revenue for the fiscal first quarter ending in April "not to exceed" $356 million and earnings "not to exceed" 42 cents a share, above analysts' current expectations. The company traditionally uses the expression "not to exceed" to guide published research. However its goal, which it almost always achieves, is to beat the guidance. For fiscal year 2001, the company says it expects earnings not to exceed $1.518 billion and earnings of $1.78 per share. Analysts had expected the company to earn 41 cents a share in the fiscal first quarter and $1.47 a share for the year, according to First Call/Thomson Financial.
The company said it ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents, bank time deposits and short-term investments of $1.735 billion, working capital of $1.86 billion, total assets of $2.6 billion and stockholders' equity of $1.24 billion.