COHR STOCK HITS ALL-TIME LOW; CHATSWORTH HOSPITAL EQUIPMENT COMPANY'S REVENUES DECREASE.

Byline: Deborah Adamson Daily News Staff Writer

After disclosing that company earnings will decline by 3 cents a share rather than gain that much, Cohr Inc.'s shares plunged $3 on Friday to close at an all-time low of 10-1/2.

Officials with Cohr, a Chatsworth-based hospital equipment maintenance outsourcing company, announced after the markets closed Thursday they expect the company to earn 19 cents a share for the second quarter of fiscal 1998 compared with 22 cents a year ago.

Oppenheimer & Co. immediately downgraded the stock from ``buy'' to ``market perform,'' the third analyst to downgrade the company in three months.

The company attributed the expected drop in earnings to a 3 percent to 4 percent dip in revenues from the first quarter, an increase in reserves from $400,000 to $450,000 to cover potential losses in a lawsuit against a delinquent account and an increase in outstanding shares from 4.8 million to 6.6 million.

``The only thing contributing to the decrease (in total revenues) is a drop in equipment sales, which is not a big part of our business,'' said Cohr spokesman David Langness. ``It is partially offset by revenues in the equipment service business.''

Equipment sales are expected to total $2.4 million in the second quarter, a 50 percent decline from $4.9 million in the previous quarter.

However, Cohr expects its main business of equipment service and repair to grow at a rate of 10 percent from the previous quarter.

It also disclosed that second quarter revenues should increase to between $25 million and $25.6 million, an 18 percent to 21 percent gain from a year ago. Net income should advance by 19 percent to $1.26 million from fiscal 1997.

The full earnings report will be released Thursday.

Despite fairly consistent double-digit growth in earnings and revenues, the company's stock price has been battered, losing 62.5 percent this year. It reached a high of 28 in January.

Analysts said one reason Cohr's shares have suffered is that executives have been too optimistic in their forecasts. The stock price takes a hit whenever earnings don't meet Wall Street expectations, which are based on company forecasts.

``They have been guiding everybody to 25 cents (a share in earnings),'' said Ellen Ceaser, an analyst at Crowell, Weedon & Co. in Los Angeles.

``This is the second quarter that they did this,'' Ceaser said.

Asked about Cohr's poorly-performing stock, Langness said the next two quarters will be ``very strong'' and the stock price should improve.

But that's what they had been telling analysts for the last two quarters, Ceaser said.

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Shares of Chatsworth-based Cohr Inc. have lost nearly half their value in three months.

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