Conference 7.286::digital

   The stock market has risen quite alot this week, and DEC (that's our
   NYSE symbol, right) has followed along.  Warnings about a "correction"
   have already been sounded, though...

Mark

    ACtually, I should have checked the history more closely. The rise this
    week is not as dramatic. It's the rise since the beginning of AUG from
    about $33.00 to the current trading price of around $38/39 that I 
    had in mind. Over three weeks, maybe not as dramatic as I thought.
    Bruce

    
        Perhaps we did something that was not expected by "The Street", 
        presumably good?
    
    	On the other hand, maybe it was a random fluctuation.
    
    
        HP reported an excellent quarter, "The Street" thought it was 
        not good enough, so the stock went down 2 points.
    
        Let's pay attention to our customers, to our employees and only 
        then to "The Street", in that order.
    
            Without customers, we're nothing, so they're number one;
            The employess invest their time and their career in the 
                company, so they are critically important to it;
            How much of "The Street" is speculation and legalized 
                gambling rather than "investing", anyway?
    
    
        An opinion,
        Peter
    

    We announce the 'sales compensation plan' to the street either last 
    friday or early this week.  

    According to The Wall Street Journal, the rise on Monday was directly
    attributed to the public announcement reagrding the award of the
    contract to provide NASDAQ with their future integrated network.  MCI
    won the deal, and is using DIGITAL products and services as the primary
    computer-oriented components.  This is a HUGE, highly visible project
    that has been under competition for quite a while.
    
    -Ken
    

    These issue are discussed in SUBWAY::DIGITAL_INVESTING.
    
    Friday's (Aug 13) high was 37 5/8.  Thursday's (Aug 19) high was 39
    1/8. That's a 3.9% rise. This is the noise level of the market.
    
    43 1/4 would be a 15% rise, and even that would not be "dramatic".
    
    "Dramatic" is a rise of 50% sustained over one month.

    I agree that I was perhaps overstating the case. I really was
    remembering the $33.00 trading figure of a few weeks ago, and 
    was comparing yesterdays trading at around $39 against that, hence
    the calculation of 15-20%. 
    I would argue that taken as a measure of the worth of Digital as
    a Company, a rise of this magnitude is "dramatic" over a short 
    period. While much of it may be due to the general rise in the
    market, which also may be due for a "correction", it is a substantial
    increase in the value of the Company. 
    I will take your advice and move any further discussion of this
    topic to Digital_investing.
    regards,
    Bruce

    The price isn't keeping pace with the market, but at least it 
    isn't falling... 
    
    J

    On 31-Jul I entered a note (10.752) in DIGITAL_INVESTING pointing out
    that the bottom was imminent and a price rise could be expected through
    August.  The bottom came the next trading day.  I still anticipate a
    continued price rise through the end of August.  You read it there first.
    
      John

    
    
    	What will happen if we show a lose in Q1?????
    
    	Will we take a severe beating after profiting in Q493???

     A Q1 loss is already expected by the analysts.....

    
    Maybe all these recent real estate sales have some relevance to
    the Q1 bottom line.  

    
    
    	Yea so, being a person that does not know too much about
    	this area, I'll ask again.... How tragic of an outcome will
    	it be if we do not profit in Q1, after a profit in Q493???
    
    
    	

    
>    	Yea so, being a person that does not know too much about
>    	this area, I'll ask again.... How tragic of an outcome will
>    	it be if we do not profit in Q1, after a profit in Q493???
 

	Not a big deal, we have already told the markets to expect a loss
	in Q4.   
    	
	Though if the loss is bigger than the market estimates, we could be in 
	for trouble.

	Heather

    
re:Maybe all these recent real estate sales have some relevance to the Q1 bottom line.

That might move some $$$ from property, plant and equipment on the balance sheet to
cash, but even if we realize a profit from the sale analysts understand that that's
not our core business. Perhaps the continuing of cost-cutting measures will hearten
them, though.

 Wall Street is expecting a loss for Q1. I don't know what the
 expectations truely are but reactions will be weighed(sp?) on
 those expectations - just like another other quarter. So, a small
 loss will probably be NBD. I thing our stock price reflects that.
 My guess is that we'll do better then what the market thinks. Palmer
 has demonstrated that he has many tricks up his sleeve - and he
 knows how to use them.

 IMO.

    
    
    	Once again the market goes down as DEC stock goes up...
    
    	Almost 3 pnts in 2 days........... 

    
    DEC 30 3/4, change +1 5/8; DJIA 3788.40, change -43.62 at 13:55.
    

    
    
      I heard on the radio today that somebody at Solomon Brothers 
    upgraded us from "hold" to "buy".

    
    "Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting"
    
    

Yes according to the news report, the analyst is projecting a small
Q3 loss (.90/share) and a small Q4 profit.  They said that Q4 would
be the turning point and that FY95 would return about $2.00/share.

         <<< Note 2626.21 by THEBAY::CHABANED "Spasticus Dyslexicus" >>>

    
>>    "Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting"
    

I don' understand the allusion. Care to explain ?

re Note 2626.23 by BROKE::RAM:

> >>    "Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting"
>     
> 
> I don' understand the allusion. Care to explain ?
  
        It has to do with Sun.

        Bob

    
    Nothing to do with our competitior BTW!  Just my favorite tune at this
    time of the year.  You frostbitten folk in the Greater Maynard Area
    should be able to relate.
    
    Seem appropriate given the good news.
    
    
    -Ed
    

I heard two stories about the stock price runup, but have a theory
of my own.

One is that the Street figured that our new 21030 graphics accelerator 
chip would make some money.  It's   quite competitive, at least at first 
glance.

Two is that somebody raised our attractiveness rating a notch.

My theory is simpler.  I sold a bunch last Friday.

    The U.K. Stock Exchange has a saying, "Sell in May and go away."  I
    think the idea is that people can't help being optimistic in the Spring
    but as Summer comes along and the same old problems persist pessimism
    re-asserts itself.  It could also be to do with the English "Season"
    where the City (or financial district) goes off in June on a round of
    Wimbledon, Ascot, Henley .....
    
    dave_P

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:	NAME: BRAD ALLEN                    
	FUNC: INVESTOR RELATIONS              
	TEL: 508-493-7182                     <ALLEN.BRAD AT ROLAIDA1 at MLMAIL at MLO>
Date:	01-Mar-1994
Posted-date: 01-Mar-1994
Precedence: 0
Subject: Salomon Brothers Upgrade                                               1
To:     See Below

Salomon Brothers this morning upgraded Digital to a buy 
recommendation, based on several factors including:

	 Analyst expectations are pretty well "washed out"

	 Negative currency and supply issues thought to be less 
	 negative in Q3
	 
	 AMD 486 foundry arrangement an important development in 
	 managing vital semiconductor costs

	 He expects sequential Alpha WS revenue growth

	 His surveys of Fortune 500 found 42% intend to buy 
	 Digital workstation products

	 More than 50% of those will buy alpha

	 >1/3 of those not buying from Digital are not yet aware 
	 of Alpha in detail which he views as sales and marketing 
	 coverage which the company is focused on fixing

	 UNIX software availability is improving, he looks for 
	 late first half, early second half of CY 1994 benefit.

Stock opened up 1 1/8 at 30 1/4 and currently is trading up 1 5/8 
on 1.8M shares traded.

    re: .29
    
>	 >1/3 of those not buying from Digital are not yet aware 
>	 of Alpha in detail which he views as sales and marketing 
>	 coverage which the company is focused on fixing

    This little comment seems to vastly underestimate the severity of
    things.  If we (Digital) are the number 3 or 4 vendor of workstations
    then the numbers of "those not buying from Digital" are probably as
    large as "those buying from Digital".  This would tell me that barely
    half of the ***PUBLIC*** has even heard of Alpha, much less accepted it.
    
    If we're really focused on fixing this marketing issue then we've got
    one helluva lot of fixing to do, much like we always have!
    
    cw

    re: .30
    
    I sat next to a sales rep for an IC distributor from Ohio who had been
    in San Diego attending a seminar.  He said he sells into the machine
    controller and appliance market.  During our conversation I mentioned
    the Alpha chip and that it runs at 150MHZ at the low end.  He was
    shocked!  He had heard of the Alpha but had no details at all.  I just
    hope I got him to thinking.

    
    -< not many people know about Alpha >-
    
    
    		And with all this wasted time past,
                and the industry the way it is,
    		not many will need to....

    ... implementation via an infobase gatewayed to the World-Wide Web (W3)
    and placed/maintained on GATEKEEPER by the responsible marketing group.
    
    ... including security requirements for the control of the dissem-
    ination of particular vendors' information, which I believe can be
    supported by currently-available hypertext protocol transfer daemons
    (httpds).
    
    ... unless there's something crucial missing from the description
    published in .33 that is.  (??)
    
    Keeping in mind that (imho) most, quickly approaching all, vendors of
    Alpha-AXP class applications, and many customers and industry analysts,
    have access to Web browsers (e.g., Mosaic for workstations with mice,
    and Lynx for terminals) which can serve as generic clients... leaving
    us the lesser job of developing an infoserver, which itself can be
    built out of openly-available, highly popular, commodity SW. 
    
    Check out SOFBAS::INTERNET_TOOLS notes 229.41 and .42 for Gail Grant's
    "Tips" documents for a good starting point.  Hit KP7 to add to your
    NOTES$NOTEBOOK...
    
    It needs to be said that a year and a half ago, this technology was NOT
    available, so the decision to internally implement and distribute a C-S
    solution may well have been the best, if not the only, course of
    action.  Now, however, it may be time to adopt a generic technology
    that is exploding in popularity rather than continuing a course that
    has been obsoleted.  This is not an unfamiliar situation in our
    business -- and this will not be the last such case of course!  
    

Well, following the release of the Q2 financials, the stock dropped from
the mid 30's to around 31.00 .  It floundered around 29.00 for the month
of February.  It's been around 31.00 so far this month.  It seems the
investment community is in a hold pattern until some pre-release figures
for Q3 get to the analysts.
    
Looks like there's nothing really to talk about yet.
                          

    Also, one of the big brockerage houses came out forecasting the 
    stock to hit $40-45 within the year.

DEC 21 3/8, change +0 3/8; DJIA unknown, change unknown at 10:45.
Report entered at Wed Jun  8 10:48:11 1994.

You do realize that quote_v0 does allow ANYONE to update the quote.  The large
delta in the price usually happens around April 1st but....

bjm