Axon Share Discussion Threads

[blockbuy] 31/7/2008 15:33

US recovering well from initial drop..............almost as if the markets want to move up..............as opposed to the last few months when regardless of whatever news they just wanted to drop.............

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[blockbuy] 31/7/2008 13:59

could be a good flight to quality day now since the news from the US.................

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[blockbuy] 31/7/2008 13:43

I'll take that too...................

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[joestalin] 31/7/2008 13:39

No, just a flight to quality.

[blockbuy] 31/7/2008 13:13

so is this the 570 express leaving the station????????????.................

nice............

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[blockbuy] 31/7/2008 09:12

morning all...........markets giving back a little of the decent gains yesterday................all seems in order...........

nice.............

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[blockbuy] 30/7/2008 22:06

evening all............could be an interesting day tomorrow............neckline broke and US higher again.............good olde SAP with their bullish statement.................

nice..................

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[blockbuy] 30/7/2008 15:49

hi Joe........decent article that...........Axon breaking out through the inverse head and shoulders neckline.............

nice..............

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[scottie01] 30/7/2008 13:59

good find joe,seems to have put a bit of zip inti the sp;-))))

[joestalin] 30/7/2008 13:41

Article from the web about IT service sector. It's a bit long but at least its positive.

A series of solid first-half trading statements from its top players has helped the IT services sector shake off the gloom that has been surrounding the technology industry.

Delivering what it hailed as "outstanding" first half-year figures, IBM said total sales grew 13% to $26.8bn, helped significantly by a 15% rise in global IT services revenues to £10bn.

This week Capita, a much smaller and newer IT player, said that, in the last six months, ICT and multi-service deals were its biggest asset in boosting operating profit by 18% to £140.6m.

And yesterday Atos Origin, the IT services group contracted for London 2012, declared higher first-half operating profit (£98m), and reported growth performance in IT consulting had risen.

Daniel Toms, of financial IT recruiters Anson McCade, said the biggest IT consultancies would always feel less impact from the tighter economic climate than their smaller counterparts.

"Large-scale, long-term, often public sector projects worth £100m-plus are less likely to be affected by these [macro] economic conditions," he added, "and these are the type of contracts won by the larger consultancies."

Nonetheless, the recent buoyancy in IT project services, typically training, systems development and consulting, flies in the face of analyst warnings in February that contracts would dry up for the foreseeable future.

One reason why IT services is defying the downturn is that the economic "uncertainty" has inspired clients hiring consultants to take a "flight to quality," according to the Management Consultancies Association.

"Clients [are] saying that, if a project is worth doing, then it's worth doing well. In other words, it is something that justifies the involvement of a big name firm, not necessarily the cheapest."

Yet one analyst who recently predicted that non-critical IT service projects would be scaled back or shelved, yesterday reiterated that the slowdown was still incoming.

"The [economic] impact is simply being delayed as a result of IT services companies managing to thrive on existing clients and existing projects that are already underway since 2007," said Rajeena Brar, an analyst at Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC).

"But when these existing projects come to an end, I do not expect new projects to come in as fast as they did a year ago. As less new projects come in, there will be less demand for IT contract staff, and hence an impact on contract rates."

Matt Smith, a director of Harvey Nash, the IT services and recruitment group, testified that technology and business consultancies were still living on overspill from previous years.

"Many IT outsourcing deals are over a lengthy period and providers could still be reaping the rewards of deals struck some time back," he said.

"Equally, the IT services market does provide opportunities to reduce costs in the short- term, which could be [another] part of the recent positive results shown by some of the big players in the market."

The Institute for the Management of Information Systems reflected on the trading statements of the two largest IT consulting firms to recently update the market.

"Both IBM and Capita are making a lot of money from taking over inefficient and fragmented operations," Phil Virgo, the institute's strategic advisor said last night.

"[By] using latest generation techniques, including shared open source databases, to strip out slack and offer better service at lower cost than those they replaced.

"One example apparently saw over twenty transmissions networks replaced by three...note, however, that at a lot of this is being done by incremental change within existing framework contracts - not new projects."

While financial services is the likeliest industry to have cut its IT work, projects both in and outside the industry will continue because of compliance, long/short-term efficiency gains and revenue-generation.

But PAC added that the number of executives who believe today's macro economic conditions will not improve until at least the end of 2009, and possibly the start of 2010, is increasing.

"Hence, I would expect the second half of 2008 to be a more negative one as the credit crisis worsens and those projects [that were] delayed to finally impact business revenues," Ms Brar warned.

"Banks were hit first, now being followed by the retail sector and manufacturing sector, for instance. The impact is rolling out across the different verticals."

Yesterday, Barclays proved that the economic impact was still being felt in financial services, as it became the latest in a long line of banks to cut its IT contractors' pay rates.

"IT training and IT contract staff usually gets hit first," PAC reflected. "While IT contractors on the whole will see cuts, certain specialists will see an increase. This will be the case for risk management professionals – as risk management and security rises to the top of agenda."

A survey last month by Harvey Nash found that companies were no more likely to make redundancies than they were six months ago, sounding some cause for optimism for IT staff.

But in the last three months, demand for freelance project managers to run new IT initiatives seems to have fallen, according to the database of PM3, a project management supplier.

Its managing director Steve Pragnell said: "There has been an increase in the number of contract project managers looking for work, a decrease in their rate expectations and a trend of companies laying off their contractors".

He said many of the lay-offs hit contractors who had been with their clients for "several months if not years" and mostly affected "generalist" rather than specialist IT services practitioners.

"We recently posted two adverts on a leading job site," Mr Pragnell explained, "one for a contract IT PM and one for a contract Engineering PM. We had over 150 responses to the former and only 7 to the latter."

Pointing to its survey, Harvey Nash said there was "still good demand for the right kind of skills," similar to the combinations of IT specialisms that were sought-after in the last major downturn of 2001.

"There will always be demand for the right IT people," the IT group said. "Between 2001 and 2003 the one contractor that was never out of work was the one who could act as an interface between the business and the outsourcing partner.

"In other words," Mr Smith added, pointing to the downturn's impact on the IT jobs market, "there is definitely a case to argue that much of the doom merchants are hyping this up. But only time will tell."

[shareman2] 30/7/2008 12:59

Too many companies hit for no real reason
Just fear
Seek fundamentally sound stocks
Plenty there
Axon should update soon

[scottie01] 30/7/2008 12:29

Hope ur right bb re axo,down a few quid here;-)o/t keep an eye on ldp,news imminent and chart verging on breaking out.dyor.

[blockbuy] 30/7/2008 12:15

even some of the banks are seeing a rise.......................and oil drifting down again............strange days.........

lol.................

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[blockbuy] 30/7/2008 11:05

and the inverse head and shoulders still forming nicely............

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[blockbuy] 30/7/2008 09:01

morning all.......markets in a good mood today..............SM.........you could be right...........turning tide..........

nice.............

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[blockbuy] 29/7/2008 22:09

evening all................SAP up nigh on 10% for the day and the US has made up yesterdays losses.................

nice...............

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[blockbuy] 29/7/2008 16:05

another $3 off oil..........$121 now................petrol prices will be dropping soon then...............sub 110p / ltr would be nice............

nice............

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[blockbuy] 29/7/2008 15:30

US seems happy with things today.........oil down too.............Axon share price creeping up..............

nice.............

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[blockbuy] 29/7/2008 10:39

hey..........welcome back SM...........where've you been then?????......personally I think with the last Axon trading statement (yep another positive one) and now SAP coming out projecting upper end targets and astrong showing of the US pipeline then yep there could be a decent change in direction here.................and about bleeding time..........lol.........


Axon 359th in the ftse..............not unconceivable to see it back in the 250 come September's shuffle??????? only around a £1 required to get in back in the automatic spot as stocks stand.............coincidence with that potential inverse head and shoulders??????????????



nice...........


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[shareman2] 29/7/2008 10:22

Im back
Feel the tide is turning

[blockbuy] 29/7/2008 09:20

I find this of particular interest about the US..............

Chief Executive Officer Henning Kagermann said in a Bloomberg Television interview that ``the most difficult time is behind us'' and the pipeline is ``strong'' in the U.S.

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[joestalin] 29/7/2008 09:20

The closer we get to November elections in US, the better things will look. I can see that things in IT world are picking up now, even though St Leger day is 6 weeks away.

[blockbuy] 29/7/2008 09:14

morning all.............so are we to expect yet another positive update from Axon following SAP's bullish release???????????????

nice..............





SAP Raises Full-Year Revenue and Margin Forecasts (Update1)

By Andreas Hippin

July 29 (Bloomberg) -- SAP AG, the world's biggest maker of business-management software, raised its revenue and margin forecasts for this year after second-quarter license sales beat analysts' estimates.

Software and related service revenue will reach the upper end of a forecast range of 12 percent to 14 percent growth in 2008, excluding currency swings and the Business Objects SA purchase, SAP said today. SAP also said it will reach the high end of its operating margin forecast range of 28.5 percent to 29 percent this year, before some items and at constant currencies.

Chief Executive Officer Henning Kagermann said in a Bloomberg Television interview that ``the most difficult time is behind us'' and the pipeline is ``strong'' in the U.S. SAP, whose software helps clients run human resources or check inventory, won contracts with Carlsberg A/S, Fiat SpA and Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. in the second quarter and has reined in research and development spending to boost margins.

``It's a good sign SAP is confident enough to raise the guidance,'' said Bolko Hohaus, who manages $220 million of technology stocks at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie.

SAP rose as much as 2.22 euros, or 6.5 percent, to 36.17 euros, the biggest gain since January 2006. The stock traded at 35.55 euros as of 9:06 a.m. in Frankfurt. Before today, SAP had lost 4.5 percent this year in Frankfurt, less than the 21 percent slide in the benchmark DAX Index.

Bolstering Margins

The company had already raised the operating margin target by one percentage point in April from a January forecast after deciding to trim research and development costs as a percentage of revenue. Co-Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker said April 3 the company will now be able to ``harvest what we have sown.''

``Where things get interesting is on the margin side,'' analysts at Goldman, Sachs & Co. including Sarah Friar wrote in a report dated July 28.

Software license sales rose 25 percent to 898 million euros ($1.41 billion), beating the 823 million-euro estimate of 22 analysts in a Bloomberg survey of via telephone and e-mail.

Software and related service revenue including currency swings reached 2.06 billion euros in the second quarter, an increase of 21 percent. The median estimate in the analyst survey was 2 billion euros, or 18 percent growth.

Net income at Walldorf, Germany-based SAP fell 9.1 percent to 408 million euros from 449 million euros a year earlier, as the dollar's decline cut into earnings. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had anticipated profit of 412 million euros.

Oracle Growth

Oracle Corp., which trails SAP in the global market for business-management software, on June 25 posted a 27 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit, buoyed by overseas orders and sales from acquisitions. Oracle's sales of new software licenses, an indicator of future growth, gained 27 percent to $3.14 billion at the Redwood City, California-based company.

``The two big players consolidating the industry, Oracle and SAP, both seem to be well positioned to counterbalance regional weaknesses,'' Zurich-based Hohaus said.

The company is grappling with a weaker dollar as it gets a third of sales from the Americas. The euro rose about 16 percent against the dollar in the 12 months ended June 30. Kagermann reported the steepest quarterly profit drop in almost six years in April as said the dollar had a ``relatively big impact.''

``I'm sure our competitiveness won't be affected even if the euro appreciated further against the dollar,'' Kagermann said in the interview.

Dual Leadership

Kagermann, who was paid 5.9 million euros last year, plans to retire in May next year, and SAP promoted sales chief Apotheker to co-CEO in April. SAP was founded in 1972 by five former IBM employees. Three of the founders, Hasso Plattner, Dietmar Hopp and Klaus Tschira, remain the biggest shareholders with a combined 30 percent stake.

SAP has more than 46,100 customers, including Porsche SE and Hewlett-Packard Co., in more than 120 countries.

``All in all the earnings are looking good,'' said Frank Schneider, an analyst at alpha Wertpapierhandel in Frankfurt. ``That SAP raised its forecasts to the upper end of the range is particularly positive.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Andreas Hippin in Frankfurt at