*NEWS*DELL :LEXMARK’s LARGEST CUSTOMER

[Anonymous]

Dell stays largest customer
When Lexmark International announced better-than-expected earnings late last month, the company’s stock soared more than 15 percent and continued to rise over the following days.It marked an upbeat period for the company’s investors, who have watched as the stock (LXK: NYSE) was hammered in recent months to lows around $26 from highs in the $70s in late 2006.Among the investors trading after the earnings announcement was former CEO and current board member Marvin Mann.A family partnership organized by Mann, who led the company from its inception as an IBM spinoff in 1991 until 1998, exercised options that would have soon expired and bought 55,000 shares of stock.

And the partnership sold them all.
Almost 70 percent of the shares were sold to pay for the exercise price, as well as to offset the tax liability.
But the other 30 percent were immediately sold and brought the partnership more than half a million dollars.”A large percentage of my total assets are in Lexmark stock,” Mann said last week from his home in Florida. “I don’t need to be building the amount of Lexmark stock that I have because I’ve already got more than any wise man should have as a percentage of my total portfolio.”He declined to share his views on the stock’s long-term prospects.

Dell stays largest customer
During its recent quarterly earnings update, the company noted that PC maker Dell continued to be its largest customer.Lexmark manufactures printers for Dell, which then sells them under the Dell brand.In 2007, Dell accounted for about 15 percent of Lexmark’s revenue. The company was the only customer generating 10 percent or more of revenue.Dell accounted for 15 percent of the company’s revenue in the previous two years, as well.

Major investor cuts stake
Goldman Sachs Asset Management has significantly dropped its holdings of Lexmark stock.In a federal filing, the company noted that as of Dec. 31, 2007, it held 4.9 percent of the company’s shares, or around 4.6 million, on behalf of clients.Its filing from a year earlier said the company owned 10.2 percent of Lexmark’s stock, or around 10 million shares.Goldman Sachs did not elaborate on the reasons motivating its lowered stake.

[Author]

February 12, 2008 at 3:58 PM