Merrill Lynch on Monday took its targets and ratings down for a host of companies, including Applied Micro. And now with Applied Micro's numbers and fiscal first-quarter forecast in hand, analysts are making their first stab at earnings for the fiscal year ended March 2003. It's not pretty. Merrill, for instance, sees Applied Micro earning all of 7 cents in fiscal 2002 ended March and then 20 cents in fiscal 2003. Both of those are down from the 48 cents the company earned in fiscal 2001.
Investors seem to have priced in a lot more than hope.