Palm (PALM) Excites Investors with Beat... Umm.

I think Palm (PALM) will go down as the miss of 2009; in fact it already has. This was $1.50 in December then jumped to $3 in early January ... when the Pre came out at a trade show - it jumped to $6 and I was reading analysts saying it was expensive there. [Jan 9, 2009: Obama Sighted with Palm Pre in His Hand Yesterday] Since it had negative earnings and no growth product until Pre was to launch later in the year, it was hard to put any valuation on it. We've been following it since [Apr 1, 2009: Bloomberg - Palm May Not Match Apple iPhone Debut as Economy Flags] [May 19, 2009: Palm to Launch Pre June 6th at Apple iPhone Pricing: $200]

$6, $8, $10, $12, $14... now with earnings out after hours approaching $16. Bah and humbug.

AP

• Smart-phone maker Palm Inc. posted a wider loss for its fiscal fourth quarter, but it was narrower than what analysts were expecting even as revenue dropped sharply. (after you read that it is almost humorous reading the next sentence) The company's shares surged in after-hours trading on the news.
• For the three months ended May 29, the company posted a loss totaling $105 million, or 78 cents per share. This compares with a loss of $43.4 million, or 40 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Palm lost 40 cents per share in the latest quarter, compared with a loss of 22 cents per share a year earlier.
• Revenue dropped 71 percent to $86.8 million from $296.2 million. Palm said its adjusted revenue was $113.2 million for the latest quarter.
• Analysts, on average, were expecting a loss of 62 cents per share on sales of $80.6 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters. Analysts typically exclude one-time items from their estimates and look at adjusted results.
• Palm's hotly anticipated touchscreen phone, the Pre, debuted June 6, after the close of the quarter, and an estimated 150,000 have been sold so far. Palm says it has shipped 351,000 smartphones in the quarter and booked a sell-through of 460,000 smartphones.

Frankly I am confused by the stock action based on these numbers; their old business has been a disaster for quite a few years; everything is about the Pre, but since the Pre just launched none of it was reflected in these numbers. 13% gain in after hours for this?


In a totally unrelated note - Michael Jackson appears to be in a coma after having a heart attack - or dead. Depending on which part of the CNN.com page you look at. And with that goes any chance of having a national discussion about what role Ben B did or did not have with Bank of America. MJ - 24/7 for the next week. EDIT 6:45 PM - Looks like it's not the coma.

No position