Beating The Street

Daisytek earned $2.2 million, or 12 cents per share, in its first fiscal quarter ended June 30, compared with $1.8 million, or 12 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Before special charges, net income was $3.6 million, or 19 cents per diluted share. Thomson Financial/First Call had projected earnings of 18 cents per share.

Meanwhile, Phoenix-based Avnet lost $61.4 million, or 51 cents per share, in its fourth quarter ended June 28, vs. a loss of $236.1 million, or $1.96 per share, in the year-earlier quarter. The results include special charges of $62.1 million related to the acquisition of Kent Electronics, the write-down of investments in Internet-related businesses, and severance costs.

Excluding the charges, Avnet's net income was $683,000, or 1 cent per share, compared with $545,000, or 5 cents per share, for the year-ago period. Thomson Financial/First Call had projected break-even earnings before the special charges.

Avnet's sales slipped to $2.14 billion, from $2.54 billion last year. For fiscal 2002, Avnet had revenue of $8.9 billion, down from $12.8 billion in fiscal 2001.

For its fiscal first quarter, Daisytek's sales were $402.5 million, up 47 percent from $273 million last year. Revenue includes the integration of the Allen, Texas-based distributor's acquisition of ISA International. Excluding ISA, sales grew 17 percent. Daisytek's U.S. revenue grew 25 percent year over year.

"They're definitely a focused company. They have a new reseller partner engagement program and are helping VARs like us with demand generation," said Bicky Singh, CEO of Future Computing Solutions, Yorba Linda, Calif. Leads from Daisytek increased 40 percent to 50 percent in the past 12 months, Singh added.

At Avnet, sales of microprocessors and disk drives to the white-box market declined by about $100 million on a sequential quarterly basis, due to excess inventory, the distributor said.

Avnet Computer Marketing, a subsidiary which includes Avnet Hall-Mark, reported $570.9 million in revenue for the quarter, compared with $619.7 million a year ago. For fiscal 2002, the subsidiary had $2.4 billion in sales, compared with $2.86 billion in fiscal 2001.

Avnet Inc. expects its first quarter to be flat compared with the previous quarter.