Every professional who follows these companies know what earnings were bought and how much they paid. They also follow cash from continuing operations, so they know if the old business is growing or declining.
Of course, they do. I also follow the stocks and trades of certain high tech companies. That's why the one I mentioned is still at 13, yet they just posted a nice gain over last year. The gain also includes the revenue from the companies they recently bought for $3.65 billion.
When the company was over $120 a share, management was telling everyone that they were immune to the worldwide recession and at the same time dumping their stock as fast as possible. The head of the company at the time was just named ambassador to Ireland and he claimed that was why he was unloading his stock. Many small stockholders were suckered into keeping their stock. It's still at the price of $13 a share.
I doubt if most stock holders realize how bad morale is. I have been keeping track of other high tech companies, especially the ones that are outsourcing to see how they are faring.
Dell has been faring pretty well, even though they outsource, but that's because they have gotten into the lucrative storage market and don't really care about the little guy who has to go through someone in India to get support. Dell was also outsourcing their high end support for their large business customers, but they brought this back to the USA when the complaints started rolling in.
They ignore the complaints from the little guy and that's why I quit buying Dell computers. We have had nothing but problems with their customer support. Finding one who speaks English well enough to understand on the phone is just the first hurdle.
I recently purchased plane tickets from one of the airlines and I bet I was routed through India. Both agents I talked to had Indian accents. The first was hard to understand, the second was understandable.