Further to DEC’s backpedalling on its business outlook (CI No 891), the company says that its ability to close large orders and orders for large machines has been sluggish, and reckons that the problem is not competition but users’ worry about the US economy: it says that it is seeing higher-than-expected demand for low-end products and is taking steps to increase capacity; as to the full year to June, it now says it is comfortable with estimates of $10.00 to $10.25 a share against earlier forecasts of $10.50 – but that would still represent an increase of at least 17% on last year’s $8.53 a share, and a worst case $3.15 a share for the fourth quarter, 10.5% up on the $2.85 for the fourth quarter of fiscal 1987.
