Topic: How To Invest

Pat: What do you think the chances are for a recovery in Palm Inc. shares? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Palm Inc., $3.87, symbol PALM on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 168.8 million; Market cap: $651.5 million), sells mobile-computing and communication devices to consumers and businesses worldwide. The company has one main product line: smartphones, which it sells under the Treo, Centro, Pre and Pixi brands. The Pre and Pixi smartphones use the webOS operating system. Palm shares recently dropped 20% in one day after the company announced disappointing sales in the three months ended February 26, 2010. Palm shipped 960,000 smartphones during the quarter, but customers only bought 408,000. That led leading to an inventory build-up at wireless carriers. As a result, Palm will now likely lose as much as $1.80 a share in the fiscal year ending May 29, 2010. The sales decline largely reflected problems the company is having marketing products that run on its webOS operating system, including its Pre and Pixi smartphones. Among these problems is a lack of support from developers, who are not making enough applications for…