Houston-based Enron Corp. said yesterday it was “verycomfortable” with its previously announced targets for 2001recurring earnings of $1.70 to $1.75 per diluted share despite adip in its stock performance this week, which hit a 52-week low.The company will provide a general update on the company during aconference call today.

The energy giant’s stock dropped more than 8% on Wednesday,fueled by what Enron said were false rumors related to its slowperforming broadband unit. Apparently, a rumor began that Enronwould announce a layoff related to its broadband unit and problemswith some overseas operations, but the company said there was notruth to it.

In recent weeks, Enron has been involved in payment issuesrelated to its power plant in India, along with the collapse of along-term video-on-demand deal with Blockbuster Inc., which fellapart two weeks ago. However, Enron executives have touted thecompany’s broadband trading unit, and have indicated thateventually, it could earn more money than any of Enron’s otherenergy trading enterprises.

COO Jeffrey Skilling said in January at a day-long analysts’conference that he expects Enron’s broadband unit to growdramatically in the next two years (see Daily GPI, Jan. 26). He andCEO Kenneth Lay said then that Enron would have “substantialcompletion” of its network, with an expected eight-fold increasethis year over last in deliveries of bandwidth from 2000.

The conference call is scheduled for 1 p.m. EST, and it will bewebcast on its Internet site at www.enron.com.

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