To: Ojing Eo who wrote (6000) | 3/1/2002 5:32:02 AM | From: AlienTech | | | You mean they can sue me for saying their crappy program crashed my machine and prevented its normal operation? And that I lost 2 friends over my recommendation to use their program as it trashed their computers??
Hey its one way to prevent people from complaining about crap. |
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To: AlienTech who wrote (6002) | 3/1/2002 5:37:18 AM | From: AlienTech | | | Time to read the fine print? Heres a part from the article..
accounting tricks to watch for
It's getting mighty difficult for small investors to pick stocks these days when even pros trained in scrutinizing balance sheets are getting snowed by the likes of Enron.
"It's the old dilemma: Reveal vs. conceal."
And here's the kicker: If a company is bent on fooling investors and Wall Street, there's little one can do to detect it, experts said.
1. Earnings are rising, but cash flow is flat or declining. When a company's profits are going up, its cash flow should be moving in tandem
It's important to remember that earnings are not the same as cash flow.
Cash flow, however, only measures the money going in and out of a company.
A company could ship more goods to retailers than they ordered and book it all as sales. This inflates revenue, resulting in higher profits on the income statement - but not cash. Instead, these extra products appear as an increase in accounts receivable - bills a company expects or hopes its customers will pay.
"It's very common, especially in the tech world," Sellers said.
Check Securities and Exchange Commission filings - the 10-K for yearly and 10-Q for quarterly reports - at Freeedgar.com for a company's cash flow and income statements, as well as balance sheet.
2. Sales or revenue per employee soars. A good way to find out if a company is inflating the top line is to calculate the total sales or revenue per employee
The figure will vary by industry, but a general rule of thumb is to suspect any number over $500,000 per worker, he said.
An ever-climbing sales per employee number shows that a company's business might be booming but it hasn't hired more workers in proportion to handling the extra load. Be wary.
3. Boosting earnings from an "over-funded" pension plan.
A company that's desperate to boost earnings can, for example, increase the expected rate of return - which will result in a larger value for the pension plan.
As a result, the firm just saved some extra money - boosting profits.
4. Taking too many "extraordinary" or "non-recurring" gains or losses.
So the firm will "write off everything but the kitchen sink," he said.
5. Suspicious "related-party transactions" It's smart to read the footnotes in a company's financial reports pertaining to "related-party transactions," Sellers said. You might be surprised at what you find. Verisign (VRSN: news, chart, profile), for one, allegedly boosted sales by investing in a small start-up business that turned around and used the cash infusion to buy products and services from Verisign, he said.
Deborah Adamson is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in Los Angeles. marketwatch.com |
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To: AlienTech who wrote (6003) | 3/18/2002 9:57:08 PM | From: Death Sphincter | | | hangin around the old graveyard? just had to check in on this thread after a few years. remember the good old days in the late 90's? when many were doubting that liar Larson's bullcrap and taking profits at higher level...and some were talking doom and gloom... and bubble.. and how can companies like this with 15%-20% growth be trading at 70-100PE. and the likes of Chizzletwit were constantly puking BUY AND HOLD BUY AND HOLD...DON'T SELL THAT YOU FOOL!!!! WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO TRADE THIS STOCK..YOU IDIOT YOU CAN'T TIME A MARKET.....NOBODY CAN!!!
take a trip down memory lane: Message 7429126 |
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To: Tim Robbins who started this subject | 3/29/2002 1:30:05 AM | From: Ojing Eo | | | nytimes.com NETA tumbled 11 percent yesterday after it disclosed that federal regulators had begun a formal investigation into its accounting practices during 2000.
The inquiry and falling stock price caused Network Associates to delay its $248 million offer to buy out its former spinoff, McAfee.com. That news sent shares of McAfee.com down 16 percent.
Ojing |
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To: Ojing Eo who wrote (6008) | 3/26/2003 2:10:12 AM | From: Conan | | | Hey, you were the only poster in the past year. Amazing how dead this once high flyer is now. Watching the whole Bill Larson insanity play out over the years starting in 1996 was truly a spectacle of greed, lies, manipulation, and hyper ego. Billy boy should have been in that bunker with Saddam when the bombs landed.
Conan |
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To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (6010) | 3/28/2003 9:46:33 AM | From: deeno | | | Yea, probably booked in the Dinar as Dollars "by mistake" so they can restate earnings one more time. This managment aint any different then the Larsen group. I'm so glad I dumped this stock awhile back. Probably should remove the bookmark, but ilke looking here for old time sake. Good luck. |
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