The Night Watch: Manugistics Soaring, Juniper Grabbing Some Pennies

Siebel and Veritas both inch up in the late session.

Author:: Yi Ping Ho
Publish date:: Dec 20, 2001 5:51 PM EST

Manugistics

headed higher in Thursday's extended session after posting a narrower-than-forecast loss for the third quarter.

The company, which makes software that enables manufacturers to share their purchasing and inventory data with suppliers over the Web, said its adjusted third-quarter loss, excluding amortization, charges and other items, was $7.6 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with adjusted net income of $3.7 million, or 6 cents a share last year. The company previously told analysts its third-quarter loss would be in line with the second-quarter's loss of 16 cents a share.

Revenues fell to $68.7 million from $70 million in the year-ago quarter. Manugistics lately gained 9.2% to $17.29 on Instinet.

Software maker

Siebel Systems

(SEBL)

gained 0.1% to $26.95, while

Veritas Software

(VRTS) - Get Report

was up 0.4% to $41.90.

Investors weren't restrained by the relative lack of news in the after-hours session. Many tech majors on the most-actives list were inching higher, as investors dug around for bargains after the regular session's selloff.

Among them were

Juniper Networks

(JNPR) - Get Report

, whose earnings warning shook Wall Street today.

The maker of network equipment said Thursday it expects to earn a pro forma 5 cents a share on revenues of $150 million to $155 million in the fourth quarter; analysts had been expecting earnings of 10 cents on revenues in the $200 million range. The company's shares, which tumbled 17.7% to close at $18.88, recently climbed 0.6% to $18.96 on Instinet.

Cisco Systems

(CSCO) - Get Report

, trodden today along with Juniper, was one of the most actively traded stocks tonight. It was up 1.1% to $19.50, from its close of $18.29.

Other tech favorites like

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

and

Yahoo!

(YHOO)

climbed.

Contract electronics manufacturer

Solectron

(SLR)

was the most actively traded issue on Instinet, with 465,000 shares changing hands by 5 p.m., although the price was flat. Rival

Jabil

(JBL) - Get Report

said this morning that quarterly earnings fell more than 80%, and warned it expects a slower rebound in its business.

Shares of

Palm

(PALM)

, the handheld computer maker, slipped 4.1% to $3.3 on Island a day after it posted a loss on a 44% drop in revenues, but said it plans to launch a range of new products in 2002.

Meanwhile, bandwidth merchant

Level Three Communications

(LVLT)

lost 0.2% to $5.06.