Sales and earnings are also lower through the third quarter of 1997. The company is now shifting its focus to outsource its manufacturing, and took two large charges in 1997 related to this discontinuance and a settlement of litigation with Applied Materials. Turmoil in Asian semiconductor manufacturing is expected to put future pressure on the company's results. A similar picture arises when we look at Chesapeake Energy, last year's leader in stock-price growth. Since then Chesapeake has been making acquisitions to help grow the company.
Revenues continue to grow rapidly as a result.
Petroleum prices, of course, have dropped quite a lot in the last year or so. Time will tell if these shifts will reignite high performance and stock price growth. Donald W. Mitchell is chairman and chief executive of Mitchell and Company, a financial and management benchmarking and consulting firm in Waltham, Massachusetts, focusing on how to make successful, rapid improvements in organizational performance. Additional research and analysis for this article were conducted by Mitchell and Company's Joan Henson, Kim Loomis, and Sarah Christopher. For more information, please contact Mitchell and Compnay.