STOCK WATCH

Silicon Graphics

Silicon Graphics admitted last week at the end of its third quarter that it would report a larger-than-expected net loss for the period, citing production delays. The workstation vendor said the deficit would be between 20 and 25 cents a share more than Wall Street expectations.

Peoplesoft

Peoplesoft's shares were hit last week as it revised expectations for its first-quarter results downwards again, admitting that revenue and operating profit would miss analysts' predictions by even more than originally forecast.

The ERP applications vendor expects sales to come in at between $275 million and $305 million, which represents between zero and 10 per cent growth compared with the same quarter last year.

CompUSA

In-store sales for US retail giant CompUSA slumped by 7.2 per cent for the third quarter ended 27 March. However, the acquisition of Computer City stores, along with its mail-order and internet operation pushed its overall turnover up 16 per cent to $1.69 billion. Sales for CompUSA's e-commerce and mail-order operation, CompUSA Net.com increased 18 per cent to $68.2 million.

Tech Data

Tech Data has exceeded analyst expectations by recording a 40 per cent increase in profit to $36.5 million and revenue of $3.85 billion for the fourth quarter ended 31 January. Profit for the full fiscal year also grew 44 per cent to $129 million with sales of $11.5 billion for the year.

JBA Holdings

IBM reseller JBA Holdings has reported a pre-tax loss of #1.7 million for the year ended 31 December 1998, against profit of #5.2 million in the previous year. Group turnover increased by 31 per cent to #293 million from #222 million in 1997. According to chairman JBA Alan Vickery, a very poor December last year stalled the progress made in restructuring the company, after only #23 million of the expected #40 million of product revenue was achieved, a shortfall of #17 million.