Crash, I understand your position....
but unfortunately, numbers stated in the 10Q's and 10K's are the only SOLID barometer an investor has when trying to a ascertain whether or not a company is meeting its goals.
Yes, numbers can be twisted. The old example of three accountants applying for the same position comes to mind. The accountants were asked at their interviews as to the sum of 2+2. Two of the accountants said "4" and were excused. The third accountant gave the interviewer a sly look and said "what do you want the sum to be?". He got the job.
Honestly, I wouldn't know how to twist the numbers. I take them at face value.
I know that a decreasing margin is bad, no matter WHAT the reason.
I know that when a percentage of revenue increases, that's good. But when the cost of producing that revenue increases the same percentage, the company has a hard time showing a profit, unless there was a large margin to begin with. I do not think a large profit margin is the case here.
My opinion is that GTE is no longer a "start-up". They have (in my opinion) acknowledged this with the list of goals Tim Huff has published. They are in effect saying "we have a handle on this stuff and will be making a profit from operations". I can see from the financial docs for the most part they aren't. Yes, some of the parts of GTE are doing better Q to Q but even those have slim margins that don't even cover the overhead. That is why they are paying the execs running this company with shares or share options.
I can see your point though. If you look at at 10K/Q from years ago, you see very little going on as far as income/revenue. GTE now shows increasing revenues.....the only problem I have with it is the same thing I have been saying all along....
If a company makes a product......and it costs that company almost as much to produce that product as it does to sell it, then the margin is small and it has trouble making a black bottom line after all the overhead is added in. This is primarily the reason (IMO) that GTE has shown a red bottom line for the last three years. This is not a bashing attempt here...this is fact taken from the last three published 10K's.
If GTE gets the strat off the ground and it eventually shows it's promise, then all this will disappear. Money will come pouring in and the stock price will zoom.
That is why I continue to hang around.
I keep telling myself....deep breath....count to ten....try to answer without personal attack...present fact to back up your opinion.
