Company Report: ADI, LCOS, TRRA, GE, TWX, CHV, XOM, HWP, A, More

Author:: Eileen Kinsella
Publish date:: May 17, 2000 7:28 PM EDT

Analog Devices

jumped 5 5/8, or 8.3%, to 73 3/8 after it reported second-quarter earnings of 32 cents a share, beating the 18-analyst estimate of 29 cents and the year-ago 11 cents. Analog said its quarterly earnings tripled amid booming demand for chips in cell phones and other products. The company also forecast higher third-quarter earnings-per-share and said revenues could rise more than 65% for the full year. It expects third-quarter earnings between 36 cents and 37 cents a share based on a backlog, which is above the 17-analyst estimate of 31 cents. The company said it expects third-quarter revenue of $640 million to $650 million and that 2000 revenues could exceed $2.4 billion.

The earnings did little to cheer the rest of the chip sector, with the

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index

off 1.8% on news of a minor earthquake in Taiwan and some profit-taking after yesterday's gains.

Merger partners

Lycos

(LCOS)

and Spanish Internet service

Terra Networks

(TRRA)

lost their earlier upward momentum after a number of analysts downgraded the stocks today. (See details below.)

Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures

Spanish Internet company Terra Networks dropped 6 9/16, or 12.3%, to 47 after it agreed to buy Internet portal Lycos for $12.5 billion in stock, or $97.55 a share. Lycos sank 15 1/64, or 20.7%, to 57 39/64. The combined company, to be called

Terra Lycos

, will have an estimated 50 million unique users and 175 million daily page views.

As part of the agreement, Germany's

Bertelsmann

agreed to purchase $1 billion of advertising, placement and integration services over five years.

This morning

ABN Amro

cut Lycos to hold from outperform, while

Merrill Lynch

analyst Peter Bradshaw cut Terra to neutral from accumulate. In his note, Bradshaw said, "We expect the premium paid for Lycos may outweigh the synergies gained. As a result we expect a transfer of value towards Lycos and away from Terra."

Also this morning,

UBS Warburg

downgraded Lycos to hold from buy.

For more on this

story, see coverage from

TheStreet.com/NYTimes.com

joint newsroom.

Online consumer automotive firm

Autoweb

(AWEB)

added 1, or 28.1%, to 4 9/16 and

America Online

(AOL)

lost 15/16 to 57 1/16 after it signed a four-year deal that will boost AOL's online car sales offerings to its more than 22 million subscibers.

A group of major chemical companies agreed to form a B2B e-commerce company to operate an online marketplace for the global chemicals industry. The companies include

BASF

Bayer

BP Amoco

(BPA)

Dow

(DOW) - Get Report

and

DuPont

(DD) - Get Report

. BP Amoco slipped 1/8 to 53 3/8, Dow dropped 2 1/2 to 112 1/8 and DuPont lost 3/16 to 52 3/4.

Oil giant

Chevron

(CHV)

lost 15/16 to 91 5/16 after it agreed to buy a 5% stake in the

Tengizchevroil

oil joint venture from the Kazakhstan government, in a deal worth over $450 million. The purchase will bring Chevron's stake in the oil project to 50% and reduce Kazakhstan's stake to 20%.

ExxonMobil

(XOM) - Get Report

also owns 25% of the project. ExxonMobil lost 1 7/8 to 81 3/8.

General Electric

(GE) - Get Report

fell 5/8 to 53 5/8 after its

NBC

unit and

Time Warner's

(TWX)

Time Warner Cable

unit said they signed a retransmission pact through 2008. Time Warner fell 2 3/16 to 83 13/16.

Hughes Electronics

(GMH)

is likely to benefit from billionaire investor Craig McCaw's decision to merge his planned

Teledesic

with

ICO Global Communications'

satellite phone project,

The Wall Street Journal

reported. Hughes fell 2 1/4 to 87 1/2 despite the news. Hughes' satellite-making unit is scheduled to direct all engineering, systems-integration and testing efforts for ICO, as well as supply up to eight additional satellites beyond the 12 already announced by the venture, the story said.

Data communications company

KPNQwest

(KQIP)

dropped 2 3/4, or 7.4%, to 24 1/2 after it said

Qwest Communications International

(Q)

sealed a multimillion-dollar multiyear deal with

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

for high-speed Internet access. Qwest International lost 9/16 to 46 11/16 while Microsoft moved down 1 13/16 to 67 11/16.

M&T Bank

(MTB) - Get Report

fell 14 1/16 to 400 15/16 after it said it will buy

Keystone Financial

(KSTN)

for $1 billion. Keystone gained 4 1/4, or 27%, to 20. Under terms of the merger, Keystone shareholders may elect to receive 0.05 of a pre-split share of M&T common stock or $21.50 in cash in exchange for each outstanding share of Keystone common stock. Simultaneous with the completion of the merger, M&T intends to declare a 10-for-1 split on its common stock.

StaffMark

(STAF) - Get Report

, a staffing services company, slipped 1/8 to 7 1/8 after it said it will sell its Commercial Services division to investment firm

Stephens Group

for $196 million in cash.

Xerox

(XRX) - Get Report

fell 1/8 to 27 1/8 and

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

lost 3/4 to 49 1/8 after the companies announced a strategic marketing relationship which calls for Dell to carry out the direct marketing of Xerox-branded office printers in the United States, followed by Europe and other worldwide markets later this year. The joint marketing agreement with Dell represents the most significant relationship to date between Xerox and a leading personal computer company involving color and black-and-white laser and solid ink printers.

Earnings/revenue reports and previews

(Earnings estimates from First Call/Thomson Financial; earnings reported on a diluted basis unless otherwise specified.)

Hewlett-Packard

(HWP)

was hit by profit taking, falling 7 13/16, or 5.6%, to 130 11/16 after it reported second-quarter earnings of 87 cents a share before items, beating the 23-analyst estimate of 82 cents and the year-ago 73 cents. Total revenue grew 15% to $12 billion from $10.4 billion in the previous year. Hewlett-Packard said the latest results reflect a company reinvention that set it on a course of consistent double-digit growth.

Lehman Brothers

raised its 2000 earnings-per-share view on Hewlett-Packard to $3.50 a share from $3.40.

H-P spinoff

Agilent Technologies

(A) - Get Report

also dropped after reporting second-quarter results. Agilent slid 10 9/16, or 11.9%, to 77 15/16. The company said it earned 36 cents a share in the latest quarter, including a gain of 4 cents. The 11-analyst estimate called for 32 cents, while the year-ago earnings were 41 cents. Agilent said the 11% decline in its operating earnings reflected planned activities related to operating independently.

For more on these

earnings, see coverage from

TheStreet.com/NYTimes.com

joint newsroom.

Campbell Soup

(CPB) - Get Report

lost 1 3/16 to 29 1/4 after it posted third-quarter earnings of 32 cents a share, beating the 13-analyst estimate of 31 cents but below the year-ago 37 cents a share.

Consolidated Stores

(CNS) - Get Report

slipped 3/8 to 11 15/16 after it reported a first-quarter loss of 12 cents a share, beating the 14-analyst estimate of a 15-cent loss, but an increase over the year-ago loss of 3 cents. The first-quarter loss, excluding the company's online toy store

Kbkids.com

, was 5 cents a share.

Level 3

(LVLT)

lost 1 3/4 to 80 5/8 after it said it foresees $750 million in revenues for 2000, and $1.7 billion in 2001.

Ross Stores

(ROST) - Get Report

dropped 1 13/16, or 8%, to 20 3/4 after it reported first-quarter earnings of 47 cents a share, in line with the 13-analyst estimate and up from the year-ago earnings of 37 cents a share.

Talbots

(TLB)

edged up 7/8 to 53 5/8 after it reported first-quarter earnings of $1.04 a share, in line with the 14-analyst estimate and up from the year-ago earnings of 62 cents.

TD Waterhouse

(TWE)

, the online brokerage owned by Canada's

Toronto-Dominion Bank

(TD) - Get Report

, posted second-quarter earnings of 20 cents a share, beating the 10-analyst estimate of 16 cents and more than double the year-ago 9 cents. The company reported earnings of 15 cents a share in the previous quarter. Excluding goodwill amortization, TD Waterhouse said earnings were 23 cents in the latest quarter and 11 cents a year ago. TD Waterhouse revenues during the quarter rose 22% to $488.7 million from $381.6 million last quarter and were up from $249 million a year ago. A slowdown in trading during the month of April hit growth in revenue trades per day. Trades grew 25% on the quarter to 239,800 from 179,400 in the three months ended Jan. 31. That's a slowdown from the 40% growth to 236,600 trades the company was averaging during the first three months of the year when stock trading volumes were at record heights. TD Waterhouse slipped 1/8 to 18 9/16.

Toro

(TTC) - Get Report

tacked on 7/16 to 32 5/16 after it reported second-quarter earnings of $2.08 a share, beating the three-analyst estimate of $1.96 and up from year-ago earnings of $1.83 a share.

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

climbed 1 5/16 to 123 3/16 after it set a 2-for-1 stock split.

Analyst actions

Upgrades

Enron

(ENE)

: price target UP to 100 from 90 at

FAC/Equities

. Enron slipped 3/8 to 77 1/2.

Public Service Enterprises

(PEG) - Get Report

: UP to buy from hold at

ABN Amro

; price target: 44. Public Service Enterprise lost 1/2 to 35 5/8.

Sprint PCS

(PCS)

: UP to strong buy from buy at

W.R. Hambrecht

; price target: 85. Sprint PCS gained 2 5/8 to 57.

Downgrades

AT&T

(T) - Get Report

: price target DOWN to 65 from 75 at

Salomon Smith Barney

. AT&T shed 11/16 to 38 1/16.

Schwab

(SCH)

: earnings estimates DOWN at

Salomon Smith Barney

. Second quarter EPS down to 24 cents from 28 cents; third-quarter at 23 cents from 25 cents; fourth-quarter to 31 cents from 33 cents and 2000 EPS at $1.12 from $1.19 and 2001EPS at $1.35 from $1.45. Schwab fell 1 15/16 to 43 3/4.

TriZetto Group

(TZIX)

: DOWN to buy from strong buy at

Wit Soundview

. TriZetto Group dropped 4 15/16, or 20.6%, to 19 1/16.

Initiations

Agile Software

(AGIL)

: NEW buy at

Wit SoundView

; price target: 65. Agile Software missed 1 3/4 to 44 1/2.

Citizens Communications

(CZN)

: NEW buy at

Bear Stearns

; price target: 25. Citizens Communications lifted 1/8 to 15 5/8.

Engage

(ENGA)

: NEW buy at

ING Barings

; price target: low 30's. Engage traded down 15/16 to 18 15/16.

Igen International

(IGEN)

: NEW buy at UBS Warburg; price target: 30. Igen International declined 1/8 to 16 3/8.

SpectraSite

(SITE) - Get Report

: NEW buy at

Lehman Brothers

; price target: 31. SpectraSite staggered 5/8 to 20.

Group Moves

Credit Suisse First Boston

raised the price targets for two retailers:

Limited

(LTD)

Tiffany

(TIF) - Get Report

UBS Warburg initiated coverage of two business-to-business electronic commerce firms:

Ariba

(ARBA)

Commerce One

(CMRC)

Miscellany

A federal jury ordered

Bear Stearns

(BSC)

to pay $111.5 million to Henryk de Kwiatkowski, a Canadian investor, who claimed the firm's negligence resulted in currency-trading losses of $300 million in his account, the

Journal

reported. Bear Stearns inched up 3/16 to 42 3/4 despite the news.

Mattel

(MAT) - Get Report

moved up 1 1/2, or 13.3%, to 12 3/4 after it named Robert Eckert, the 45-year-old head of

Philip Morris'

(MO) - Get Report

Kraft Foods

unit, as chairman and CEO. Eckert succeeds Jill Barad. Salomon Smith Barney upgraded Mattel to buy from hold and said it is carrying a price target of 16 but recognizes there could be significantly more upside if the turnaround is successful.

TheStreet.com's

Brett D. Fromson

took a look at Eckert's appointment in a

story this evening.

TheStreet.com Inc.

(TSCM)

, publisher of this Web site, moved up 7/8, or 12.4%, to 7 15/16 after it said it is canceling its television program, which runs on the

Fox News Channel

, because of differences with the broadcaster and parent company

News Corp.

(NWS) - Get Report

. News Corp. lost 1 to 49 1/8.

The Heard on the Street column in the

Journal

said

T. Rowe Price

technology fund manager Charles "Chip" Morris has reduced holdings of bellwethers like Dell, Intel and Microsoft in favor of smaller tech companies that are more focused on communications, networking and the Internet. Alternatives such as

Sun Microsystems

(SUNW) - Get Report

and

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

may be more expensive, but according to Morris, "the epicenter of technology is shifting away from the PC."