Message #17 From:
Stock News Bot Date: November 20, 2006 09:00:00 AM
EASY News Dutton Associates Announces Investment Opinion: EasyLink Speculative Buy Rating Maintained in Update by Dutton Associates
EL DORADO HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dutton Associates updates its coverage of EasyLink Services
(Nasdaq:EASY) maintaining a Speculative Buy rating and a 12-month price
target of $5.20. The 9-page report by Dutton senior analyst Joe Noel is
available at www.jmdutton.com, and
from First Call, Bloomberg, Zacks, Reuters, Knobias, and other leading
financial portals.
EasyLink provides its clients with an assortment of outsourced
electronic tools that allows them to transform manual and paper-based
business functions into automated electronic transactions. EasyLink’s
networks facilitate transactions that enable the movement of money,
materials, products, and people, such as insurance claims, trade and
travel confirmations, purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices and
funds transfers, among many others. EasyLink manages tens of millions of
electronic messages and transactions per month for more than 20,000
companies, including over 400 of the Global 500. The September 2006
quarter was disappointing for EasyLink investors in terms of revenue
generation, operating expenses and EPS. The increase in gross margins to
just over 61%, exclusive of one-time items, which yield a reported gross
margin of over 63%, is exciting in our opinion. Management’s
guidance for the December quarter of 2006 is for revenues of $17.6 to
$18.1 million. We believe this company has significantly under-utilized
assets in its fax services that can be put to better use either through
new product introductions, sales of certain assets or possibility of the
sale of the entire company. We strongly believe EasyLink as an
acquisition target is worth well more than the current market
capitalization of approximately $30 million, and we specifically point
to J2 Global Communications which trades at approximately 7X projected
2006 revenues while EasyLink trades at approximately .4X projected 2006
revenues.
About Dutton Associates
Dutton Associates is one of the largest independent investment research
firms in the U.S. Its 29 analysts, primarily CFAs, have expertise in
many industries. Dutton Associates provides continuing analyst coverage
of over 140 enrolled companies, and its institutional-quality research,
estimates, and ratings are carried in all the major databases serving
institutions and online investors.
The cost of enrollment in our one-year continuing research program is US
$39,500 prepaid for 4 Research Reports, typically published quarterly,
and requisite Research Notes. Dutton Associates received $83,500 from
the Company for 13 Research Reports with coverage commencing on
9/04/2002. We do not accept payment of our fees in company stock. Our
principals and analysts are prohibited from owning or trading in
securities of covered companies. The views expressed in this research
report accurately reflect the analyst's personal views about the subject
securities or issuer. Neither the analyst's compensation nor the
compensation received by us is in any way related to the specific
ratings or views contained in this research report or note. Please read
full disclosures and analyst background at www.jmdutton.com
before investing.
