A prominent Wall Street satellite analyst cut his subscriber estimates, stock rating and stock price target for Globalstar [GSTRF], a global, mobile satellite phone service that recently launched operations in the wake of high-profile bankruptcies by its two largest competitors last August.

Rob Kaimowitz, who heads a satellite research team at ING Barings, lowered his firm’s projections significantly by slicing Globalstar’s 2001 price target from $28 to $12 and cutting the rating on Globalstar to “hold” from “strong buy.” Potential exists for “significant downside” from current stock price levels as Globalstar disseminates its performance during the first quarter, ING Barings reported.

A key reason for the downgrade, according to a report by Kaimowitz and his team, is the likelihood that first quarter results will be “anemic.” Revenues now are expected to fall below $700,000, down from a previously projected $5.1 million, the ING Barings report found.

“We are lowering our estimates for both mobile subscribers and fixed site units by a substantial margin for this year and future years, according to the ING Barings report. For 2000, ING Barings cut its mobile subscriber estimate by more than 50 percent to 150,000 from a previous estimate of 328,000. Also for 2000, ING Barings trimmed its projections for fixed site unit installations by 75 percent to 10,000 from 41,000.

In addition, only 1,000 fixed site units have been ordered by service providers. “This gives us little confidence in management’s plan to have between 40,000 and 50,000 units installed this year, according to the ING Barings report. “We point out that changes in fixed site forecasts have a meaningful affect on our model as we have expected each fixed site unit to consume roughly 400 minutes of use per month.”

Projections for mobile subscribers also have been cut for 2002 by 40 percent to 1.250 million, down from a previous estimate of 2.028 million. For the same year, fixed sites were cut 72 percent to 60,000 units, falling from a previous projection of 211,000 units.