MOT Preview: Not Expecting Much

Motorola (MOT - commentary - Cramer's Take) is scheduled to announce numbers for the three months ended March 31, 2009, tomorrow morning before the opening bell.

The Street expects the company to report a loss of 11 cents per share on revenue of $5.55 billion. In the year-ago period, the company lost a nickel per share on revenue of $7.45 billion. For the three months ending June 30, 2009, the sell-siders expect Motorola to lose a nickel per share on slightly higher revenue of $5.81 billion. For fiscal year 2009 (ending Dec. 31, 2009), the analysts expect the company to lose 14 cents per share on revenue of $23.96 billion. These are doomsday scenario numbers based on what we have seen from Motorola's competitors.

According to a article put out by Forbes, Motorola is actually hiring with about 520 job openings in finance, sales, engineering, marketing and project management, which could be a sign that the worst could be behind for Motorola.

The most important issue I see is the massive bleeding in the company's cell phone manufacturing unit and management's plans to stem that bleeding. Analysts expect that the company will have shipped 15 million units in the first three months of this year, which is down 65% from the 45 million sold in comparable periods in the past. Since the introduction of the RAZR five years ago, Motorola has not had one hit phone. That has to change, or the company will have to shutter or sell it cell phone manufacturing operations.

There is still a lot of concern among investors about the company being able to face its competitors effectively. Motorola has to find a way to not only fend off but better its competition by introducing newer and better received models.

I am not expecting much from Motorola, but I do feel that the stock could easily provide a 10% to 15% pop if there is any good news tomorrow.

We shall see.

Good luck going into the earnings release whether you are coming in from the dark-side or the good-guy side.

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Know What You Own: Corning operates in the communication equipment industry, and some of the other stocks in its field include Qualcomm (QCOM - commentary - Cramer's Take), Nokia (NOK - commentary - Cramer's Take), DirecTV (DTV - commentary - Cramer's Take), Corning (GLW - commentary - Cramer's Take), Alcatel-Lucent (ALU - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Harris (HRS - commentary - Cramer's Take). For more on the value of knowing what you own, visit TheStreet.com's Investing A-to-Z section.

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At the time of publication, Somaney had no positions in the stocks mentioned, although positions may change at any time without notice.

Jay Somaney is a partner and fund manager with TSG Capital Partners, a hedge fund based in Plano, Texas, and founder of GlobalTechStocks.com, a subscription site that focuses on technology and Indian stocks (including ADRs), providing information, news and chatter. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Somaney appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.