The stock already trades at a 13-to-20 percent premium to the British market as a whole, based on earnings projections.

The company said recently that it expected to meet analysts' earnings projections of 15 cents a share for the first quarter.

The management can't make bad earnings projections if no one is listening.

It was the second time in two and a half months that Ford cut its earnings projections for the year.

Others suggest the company's earnings projections were just plain wrong.

That lets him meet with management of 500 to 600 companies, to learn whether they will continue to beat analysts' earnings projections.

The company also said it stood by its earnings projection of $2.19 a share for 2003.

He did note, however, that prices could fall if earnings projections were found to be inaccurate.

The stock now trades at $29.00, or 10.2 times his 2001 earnings projection of $2.85 a share.

Its internal earnings projections were $22.7 million for the period.