Comcast, NetSuite rise as Nasdaq slumps

Netsuite, Comcast, and Qwest issued strong earnings reports this week as economic worries continued to depress shares of Intel and many other IT companies.

Software-as-a-service ERP company NetSuite, which had a hot IPO in December, reported a strong fourth quarter after the market closed Thursday. Revenue jumped 57 percent compared to one year earlier, to $31.7 million, beating analyst predictions of $30.5 million. Excluding one-time charges, the company reported a net loss of $0.01 per share, better than the $0.03 forecast by analysts.

Before the report, company shares jumped by $0.79 to close at $23.49. In the half-hour after the report was issued, shares continued to rise in after-hours trading, by $0.51 to $24.00.

Telecom sector news was largely positive this week as well. Comcast reported on Thursday a 54 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit, to $602 million, riding sales fueled by cable TV and acquisitions. Revenue rose 14 percent from one year earlier to hit $8 billion, beating the consensus forecast of $7.9 billion, as reported by Thomson Financial. Excluding one-time charges, earnings per share were $0.20, beating the analyst forecast of $0.17.

CEO Brian Roberts fretted on a conference call that the economy weakened in the second half of 2007 and said he expected that trend to continue.

However, investors seemed to latch on to the good news: Not only were sales strong, but company officials promised no more big acquisitions, said they would cut back exceptionally rich benefits to company founder Ralph Roberts, and reported that Comcast would pay out $6.9 billion by the end of 2009 to buy back shares and shore up its share price. The company’s lagging share price has been a concern.

“Telephone companies are starting to sell their bundle of telephone and television and Internet and wireless[,] and that competitive threat may have investors wondering about the upcoming battle between cable television and local telephone companies,” noted telecom analyst Jeff Kagan.

Nevertheless, traders apparently liked the steps the company announced, apparently relieved that no big acquisition plans are in the offing. Shares rose by $1.43 to close at 19.24.

Earlier in the week, shares of Qwest also rose on upbeat earnings news. On Tuesday, Qwest shares gained $0.15 to close at $5.28 after lower operating expenses helped bring fourth-quarter net income to $366 million, up from $194 million a year earlier. Despite the soft economy, average revenue per consumer rose as the company succeeded in expanding the number of subscribers it has for bundles of services.

Though there was good cheer on the earnings front, probably more emblematic of the mindset of IT investors this week was the hit that Intel took Thursday after Goldman Sachs removed the company from its “conviction buy” list. The brokerage kept its “buy” rating on the company but said the chip maker faces slow PC sales growth and consequent difficulties in maintaining or expanding margins.

The Goldman report came a few days after Forrester Research dropped its U.S. IT growth forecast to 2.8 percent from 4.6 percent and its global forecast to 6 percent from 9 percent. Forrester forecasts spending on PCs, servers, storage devices and peripheral markets will drop to 4 percent from 12 percent last year.

Intel shares declined Thursday by $0.75 to close at $20.46.

Earnings-report season is winding down with most big IT vendors having reported strong sales for the fourth quarter of 2007. Tech-company shares, however, are for the most part trading lower than they have since 2006, as investors remain wary of a recession and a subsequent slump in IT spending.

In this climate, investors remain sensitive to macroeconomic data. A report about strong January retail sales caused the Nasdaq Composite Index, weighted heavily with tech stocks, to jump 2 percent Wednesday, its biggest one-day jump since November. But Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke addressed the Senate Banking Committee, mentioning weakness in the housing, employment and credit markets. Markets plummeted again, with the Nasdaq closing at 2332.54, down by 41.39, or 1.74 percent.

IT investors will be watching when Hewlett-Packard reports quarterly earnings Tuesday. HP, the world’s largest IT company as well as the biggest PC supplier, has broad consumer and business market reach. Remarks by company executives on how the next few quarters are shaping up are sure to be closely scrutinized.