Commenting on its disconcerting 94% plunge in first quarter profits on sales down 20% (see Company Results – which banged the shares $6.125 to $49 even, Cray Research Inc said it entered the year expecting delivery of computer systems to be much higher in the second half of the year than in the first, and that current delivery schedules indicate that more systems have shifted to the last half of the year and that it now expects revenue for the second quarter to be similar to the comparable year-ago period: it has not changed its objective of achieving a 10% turnover increase for the full year, and that the plunge in profits was in part down to investments in new product development, which could also significantly affect profits in the second quarter, while profits for the year were still in the lap of the gods.
