Firm Avoids Avant! Investment firm issues 'Strong Sell' for Avant! By Craig Matsumoto, EE Times New York -- An investment firm has taken a stand against Avant! Corp. by issuing a "strong sell" recommendation based on Avant!'s ongoing court battles. The report from Asensio & Co. Inc. reads, "We believe that Avant! is guilty as charged, that a plea-bargaining settlement is highly unlikely and that prosecution is unavoidable." Avant! is the only design-automation firm tracked by Asensio. Rather than hire industry specialists, the firm tracks "event-driven stocks," President Manuel Asensio said. In Avant!'s case, he has been watching the court proceedings and is convinced Avant! carries too much risk to justify its current $30-per-share price. "At any moment, the shoe could drop," the president said. "There will be a natural progression, before the shoe drops, of the stock to reflect this risk." Commenting on the stock price, Asensio wrote, "Even assuming the best-case scenario we believe Avant!'s stock is grossly overvalued. We believe that this gross evaluation makes it impossible for investors to realize any gains." The Asensio firm has shorted Avant! stock. Asensio announced its report on the news wires at midday on Friday, Aug. 1, but to little effect. As of this writing, AVNT is trading at 29 1/2. Avant! struck a 52-week low of $9.75 per share in April after company officials were arrested on criminal charges by the District Attorney's office of Santa Clara County. The stock has since recovered those losses. (Next article.) (c) 1997 CMP Media, Inc [This article comes from EE Times in a joint cooperative effort with the Motley Fool. For more articles like it, please look at Fool's Gold every weekend or simply go to the Fool's Gold Mine and page through our back issues, which all have clever and cool EE Times articles in them.]

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