CONVERGENCE VENTURE BUOYS TEKELEC STOCK.Byline: Jason Z. Cohen cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. Staff Writer CALABASAS - Shares of Calabasas-based Tekelec Inc. climbed 25 percent Thursday as investors rallied behind a positive earnings report. The company on Wednesday beat Wall Street's estimate by 2 cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. and investors promptly snapped up the stock, boosting it $6.5625 to a Thursday close of $32.5625. The company builds signals that maintain traffic flow through telecommunications networks A telecommunications network is a of telecommunications links and nodes arranged so that messages may be passed from one part of the network to another over multiple links and through various nodes. . Its latest venture - and the one that has investors drooling drooling the discharge of saliva from the mouth. A normal feature in some breeds of dogs such as St. Bernard, Newfoundland and English bulldog, presumably because of their loose, pendulous lips. - is convergence. Tekelec is one of the companies with products designed to merge voice and data communications data communications, application of telecommunications technology to the problem of transmitting data, especially to, from, or between computers. In popular usage, it is said that data communications make it possible for one computer to "talk" with another. on the same networks. Convergence squeezes voice and data transmissions together on lines that previously held one or the other. ``This is a real opportunity for Tekelec for the future,'' said company spokesman Erik Randerson. ``We've got a new line that really targets the convergence of voice and data.'' ``It's all about efficiency,'' said Brian Modoff, stock analyst with Deutsche Banc Alex Brown Alex Brown may refer to:
Modoff was one of a handful of analysts to reiterate re·it·er·ate tr.v. re·it·er·at·ed, re·it·er·at·ing, re·it·er·ates To say or do again or repeatedly. See Synonyms at repeat. re·it their favorable ratings of Tekelec's stock. He renewed his ``strong buy'' rating and set a 6- to 12-month price target of $50 per share. Stock analysts aren't the only ones taking an interest in Tekelec and its IP7 line of products. Customers have been placing orders for Tekelec's convergence products at an increasing pace, the company said in a statement. The company's orders increased 76 percent over the fourth quarter of 1998 to $100 million. ``That's a good indication of future demand,'' Modoff said. He said Tekelec's revenues beat his estimate by $4 million or 4 cents per share. For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 the company reported net income of $12 million, or 20 cents per share, on record sales of $76.9 million. For the 1998 fourth quarter Tekelec earned $9.3 million, or 16 cents per share, on sales of $49.2 million. For all of 1999 the company earned $26.6 million, 45 cents per share, on sales of $226.1 million vs. net income of $34.5 million, 59 cents per share, on sales of $176.7 million. The year-end results costs are associated with the second-quarter acquisition of IEX IEX Ion Exchange (chromatography) IEX Inter-Exchange Carrier Corp. Modoff projects earnings per share of 62 cents this fiscal year. He said he expects fiscal year 2001 to result in earnings of 90 cents per share, 2 cents more than the average of his colleagues. ``It was a strong quarter for the company,'' Modoff said. ``We think this convergence story and their position in convergence is starting to become clear.'' CAPTION(S): chart Chart: Profitable Reaction |
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