Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[titan3]

posted by:
by: westwoodguy 03/31/04 06:14 pm
Msg: 234045 of 234049

Was QLogic Hurt By Drop In Orders From Sun?
03.31.04, 9:47 AM ET

Merrill Lynch downgraded QLogic to "neutral" from "buy." Merrill said the storage-network technology company's revenue growth has slowed recently and recent execution "has been weaker than expected." The research firm said that QLogic's preannouncement of fourth-quarter projections included revenue and earnings outlooks that were below Merrill's estimates. "The main culprit of the disappointing results was a decline in host bus adapters orders from two of the company's OEMs at the end of the quarter," said Merrill, adding that it suspects that Sun Microsystems "is one of these OEMs."

Merrill said that on the positive side, QLogic should benefit from Sun's "seasonally strong" June quarter and QLogic has an opportunity to win the Hewlett-Packard HP-UX single channel HBA business "within the next year."