I go way back with EMC (NYSE:EMC). "Way back" as in this was the first stock I ever owned. Period. And that was one heck of a debut for yours truly in the stock market -- I bought it in the very early '90s and held it on through the fall of 2000. And while I didn't take advantage of the chance to buy again when it cratered in late '02, I've always kept an eye on this one with the hopes of holding it again someday.
Whether that someday is today, we'll get to in a moment. Meanwhile, let's look at the quarter that was.
Revenue was up 14% for the data-storage supplier, with systems revenue rising 20% and software/maintenance revenue growing 11%. While Europe and Latin America were both strong markets for this quarter, Asia was rather feeble. If you're willing to factor out the impact of stock-option expense, operating earnings were up about 17% this quarter -- but down 6% if you're not.
The big news, though, was that the company boosted its share-buyback authorization to $3 billion -- a figure representing about 9% of today's market capitalization. And it's hardly as though executing that buyback will leave EMC cash poor -- it finished the quarter with $7.4 billion in cash and investments and no debt.
Here's the thing, though. EMC looks enticingly cheap, but then so do Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), not to mention a few other chip companies that I like even better. So why are all of these tech companies trading at what look like attractive valuations? Corporations certainly have the cash to spend on gear and software, so why isn't there more faith in these former stock market leaders?
I know that EMC faces various competitive threats, including IBM (NYSE:IBM), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), and various tech start-ups, but competition is nothing new to EMC. What's more, even if some gee-whiz technology that could threaten the business does appear, EMC has the cash to either buy the competitor out or buy a rival with similar technology -- just assuming, that is, that it isn't someone like IBM with the new technology.
So for now, I'm keeping EMC as a second-tier idea on my watch list. There are other stocks I'm more enthusiastic about buying today, but not too many. And in the meantime, maybe I'll hear from readers as to what they see as the positives and negatives of the EMC story today.
For more EMC Foolishness:
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
