STOCKS TO WATCH: Drugstore.com, Interland, TI and Vitesse
Expect the following technology stocks to be among Monday’s most actively traded issues: Drugstore.com, Interland, Texas Instruments and Vitesse Semiconductor.
Drugstore.com will be worth watching after announcing CFO David Rosten had resigned and that it will lay off another 125 workers in a continuing effort to reach profitability.
Drugstore.com coincidentally reports its fourth-quarter results Monday with analysts projecting a loss of 55 cents a share.
In the layoffs/resignation release, company officials said it now has $130 million in cash, enough to reach cash-flow breakeven under this latest cost-cutting plan.
Bob Barton, currently the company’s general manager of pharmacy operations, will replace Rosten as CFO.
The company said the job cuts and other cost-saving moves are expected to reduce Drugstore.com's projected 2001 operating expenses by more than $20 million.
Its shares finished up 6 percent to $2.63 Friday, well off its 52-week high of $36.63 established last January.
Interland spoke out Sunday, saying its fourth-quarter loss will be in the vicinity of analysts’ estimates if not a bit smaller on sales of between $10.4 million to $10.6 million. Analysts were expecting sales of around $12 million in the quarter.
The Web hosting and services provider said the weakening economy and longer “sales cycles to higher-value customers” contributed to the weaker-than-expected sales.
First Call Corp. consensus expects it to lose 44 cents a share in the quarter.
Interland says the loss will be between 42 cents to 44 cents a share despite the watered down sales.
The company said it plans to raise prices for certain services and cut back on spending, adding that its goal is to have earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization become positive by Dec 2001.
Its shares closed off 44 cents to $2.94 Friday.
TI shares will be moving ahead of its fourth-quarter earnings report.
Analysts expect the digital chipmaker to earn 33 cents a share in the quarter, up from 26 cents a share in the year-ago quarter.
Its shares closed off 94 cents to $50.31 Friday.
Twenty-one of the 26 analysts following the stock maintain either a “buy” or “strong buy” rating.
Vitesse, which makes chips for optical equipment and storage networking, will be on the move ahead of its first-quarter results.
Last quarter, it easily topped the Street view when it raked in $40.3 million, or 21 cents a share, on sales of $138 million.
This time around, analysts are forecasting $161.7 million in sales and a profit of 24 cents a share.
The stock closed off 25 cents to $65.69 Friday.
Reuters contributed to this report.