STOCK WATCH

Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard has warned that profits for the quarter ending 31 July will fall short of the 58 cents per share achieved during the same period in 1997. This will be the sixth consecutive quarter that HP's results have fallen short of Wall Street's expectations. HP chief executive Lewis Platt blamed the Asian crisis for lagging revenues.

IBM

IBM's second-quarter earnings rose 0.4 per cent on last year, to $1.45 billion, slightly exceeding analysts' forecasts. Net earnings were boosted by a lower company tax rate than in 1997. Revenue fell 0.3 per cent - significantly less than the three per cent growth predicted by the market.

Despite the modest sales, IBM told analysts not to alter their earnings projections for the rest of 1998.

SAP

SAP posted pre-tax profits for the half year ending 30 June of DM832 million (#271 million) - a 43 per cent increase on last year. Sales rose 61 per cent to DM3.9 billion. The German business software group said sales in Asia fell five per cent between April and June and warned the situation would deteriorate if companies continued to scale back on investment.

SAP's shares rose nearly 80 per cent overall this year.

Network Associates

Network Associates (NA) reported a net loss of $101.2 million for the quarter ending 30 June. Sales rose 39 per cent to $212.5 million. The overall results were affected by a recent acquisition spree, including Trusted Information Systems and the Dr Solomon's Group. William Larson, NA's chief executive, said the better-than-expected results were due to a rise in demand for computer security products.

Rockwell

Rockwell International Corp saw a $482 million loss for its third quarter to 30 June, reflecting previously disclosed charges for restructuring of its industrial automation operations. Total sales increased 3.1 per cent on the previous year's figures to $1.66 billion. The results were in line with Rockwell's June warning.

Lucent

Lucent Technologies, the company spun off from telecoms giant AT&T two years ago, had net income of $435 million for the third quarter ending 30 June, before charges, compared with $213 million for the same period last year. Revenue increased 14 per cent to $7.2 billion. The one-off charge of $668 million was derived from recent acquisitions of businesses that specialise in data networking equipment.

Symantec

Symantec reported a net loss of $1.4 million for its first quarter ended 3 July, against a profit of $18.5 million last time, after research and development charges. Sales were $153 million - a 13 per cent increase on the same period last year.