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STOCKS TO WATCH: Lucent, Motorola, Seagate and Yahoo!

3 min read

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Wednesday's most actively traded issues: Lucent, Motorola, Seagate and Yahoo!.

  • Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU)

    Lucent should be active after issuing its second profit warning for the fourth quarter after the bell Tuesday.

    Lucent (NYSE: LU), which warned in July that it would miss estimates in the quarter, said it now expects to post a profit of between 17 cents to 18 cents a share in the quarter.

    Analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. lowered their initial profit estimate from 42 cents a share to 27 cents a share following the July warning.

    It now expects to record sales of between $9.3 to $9.4 billion, roughly a 15 percent improvement from the year-ago quarter.

    Company officials blamed weak margins in its optical systems business, a rising bad debt reserve and a brutal decline in demand for its circuit-switching equipment.

    It also said the lackluster fourth quarter will result in lower sales and earnings expectations for fiscal 2001, although it did not provide any details.

    Ahead of the warning, Lucent shares closed off $1 to $31.31.

  • Motorola (NYSE: MOT)

    Motorola will see some action after it met analysts' estimates in its third quarter, earning $598 million, or 26 cents a share, on sales of $9.5 billion.

    First Call Corp. consensus pegged it for a profit of 26 cents a share in the quarter.

    Its shares closed off 38 cents to $26.63 ahead of the earnings report.

    The $9.5 billion in sales marks an 18 percent improvement from the year-ago quarter when it earned $361 million, or 16 cents a share, on sales of $8.1 billion.

    Separately, Motorola announced that it would sell four cellular telephone operating companies in Mexico to Telefonica Moviles for $1.79 billion.

  • Seagate Technology (NYSE: SEG)

    The disk-drive and software maker will be on the move Wednesday after easily topping analysts' estimates in its first quarter.

    After the bell, Seagate said it earned $62 million, or 26 cents a share, on sales of $1.75 billion.

    First Call Corp. consensus expected it to earn 21 cents a share in the quarter.

    Its shares closed off $1 to $62.94 ahead of the earnings report.

    The $1.75 billion in sales marks a 4 percent jump from the year-ago quarter, when it earned $2 million, or 1 cent a share, on sales of $1.68 billion.

  • Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO)

    The Internet bellwether will see plenty of volume Wednesday after beating the Street in its third quarter, earning $81.1 million, or 13 cents a share, on sales of $295.5 million.

    The strong sales and earnings topped analysts' estimates and should help reassure nervous Internet investors.

    Analysts were expecting a profit of 12 cents a share in the quarter.

    The stock closed off $3.06 to $82.69 ahead of the results but moved up to $84.91 in after-hours trading.

    The $295.5 million in sales was almost double the $155.9 million it recorded in the year-ago period.

    September traffic rose to 780 million page views a day, up from an average of 680 million page views a day in June.