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Novell shares down after company warns about Y2K

NEW YORK, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Shares of business management software company Novell Inc. (NasdaqNM:NOVL - news) dipped in heavy trading on Wednesday morning following warnings to analysts from the company about its next quarter due to the Year 2000 changeover.

Novell was off 1-1/4 at 20-3/4 as the second heaviest traded stock on Wednesday morning on the Nasdaq stock market.

Banc of America Securities Managing Director Paul Dravis said Novell told analysts in a conference call following its earnings announcement that it may experience some turbulence as a result of the Year 2000 changeover.

``Management was somewhat cautionary about their January quarter,'' Dravis said in a telephone interview.

Dravis said Banc of America Securities lowered its earnings estimate to 13 cents per share from 14 cents per share for Novell's first quarter of fiscal 2000.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter said on Wednesday it lowered its rating on Novell to neutral from outperform but provided no details.

First Call/Thomson Financial, which tracks analysts' forecasts, listed its consensus estimate for Novell's first quarter at 14 cents per share.

The company reported fourth quarter profits on Tuesday that matched analysts' forecasts, while sales rose 16 percent.

Provo, Utah,-based Novell said that for the three months ended Oct 31 it earned $73.8 million, or 21 cents a share, an increase from $42 million, or 12 cents in the year-ago period. Sales rose to $344.6 million from $297.6 million.

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URL: http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/991124/qz.html

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), November 26, 1999