Thread ---Guess he was reading the LU proxy ---
S&P Analyst Predicts Lucent, MCI WorldCom To Join Stock-Split Frenzy
February 02, 1999 4:19 PM
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A market analyst for Standard & Poor's PersonalWealth.com Web site
predicted Tuesday that Lucent Technologies Inc. and MCI WorldCom Inc. are likely candidates to
join the legion of big-name technology companies that have split their stocks in recent weeks.
S&P analyst Kevin Gooley, appearing on the CNBC cable network, said investors should look at
companies with a history of splitting their stock and to focus on prices that have increased
significantly of late. Lucent and MCI WorldCom fit those categories, Gooley hinted.
Investors appeared to pay little attention to Gooley's prediction, as Lucent's shares (LU) lost 12.5
cents to close at $110.375, and MCI WorldCom (WCOM) fell $1.813 cents to $78.938. Still, at its
recent price, Lucent is up 148% from its low of $43.938 last January. MCI WorldCom, meanwhile, is
trading at a 131% premium to its low last February of $34.75.
The prediction comes amid much recent hype over stock splits. While stock splits in themselves
aren't always stock-moving events, splits in a popular stock tend to create excitement. Stock splits
also have been a major feature of the Internet group recently, as those stocks have chalked up
meteroric gains. America Online Inc. recently announced its own 2-for-1 split, its sixth since going
public in 1992.
Database-software giant Oracle Corp. entered the fray Monday with an announced 3-for-2 split.
Semiconductor giant Intel Corp., software giant Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines
Corp. recently set 2-for-1 splits.
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