Palm Shows Mixed Hand (PALM)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Palm LogoPalm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) has been one of 2009’s top performers due to the anticipation of the Palm Pre smartphone this month.  The company’s earnings are out and it has shares marginally higher.  The smartphone maker posted -$0.40 in non-GAAP EPS  on $113.2 million in non-GAAP revenue.   As a reminder, the Palm Pre sales were NOT included in these results.   Thomson Reuters had estimates as -$0.62 EPS on $80.6 million in revenue.

The company shipped a total of 351,000 smartphones in the quarter, representing a 6% jump from the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 and a year-over-year decline of 62%. Smartphone sell-through was 460,000 units, down 5% vs. the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 and down 52% year-over-year.  Cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments were $255.1 million, which includes the $103.5 million in net proceeds from the company’s public equity offering from March.

No guidance was offered, but the company’s estimates for next quarter are -$0.30 EPS and $279 million in revenue.

Because everything has hinged on this Palm Pre launch, you might see all sorts of moves in the after-hours session during the conference call.  That just depends on what management says regarding the CEO change and on the Palm shipment expectations.

Be advised that there are huge differences in this stock in the GAAP and non-GAAP data for earnings metrics and for its units.

Shares closed unofficially up over 0.5% at $14.02 and the 52-week range is $1.14 to $15.25.  The trading in after-hours is up around $14.25.

Jon C. Ogg
June 25, 2009

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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