Kopp is one of the largest investors in DMIC.
<http://www.startribune.com/cgi-bin/stOnLine/article?thisSlug=NEAL25>
Rob
>Kopp funds bounce back
>
>Lee Kopp's emerging-growth portfolio of small-to-mediumsized
>telecommunications-related holdings has rebounded sharply from
>the pits of last fall's steep market swoon.
>
>Dozens of customers pulled their money at the bottom from
>Kopp Investment Advisors, which focuses mostly on fast-growing
>technology firms of less-than $3 billion in market capitalization.
>Kopp always has billed itself as a high-wire act in a surging,
>volatile sector that's driving the electronic upgrades of offices
>and homes around the world.
>
>Kopp, who works with longtime portfolio managers Sally Anderson and
>Steve Crowley, said 1998 was the toughest year since 1974 in terms
>of market ebbs, jabs on the golf course and hate mail from clients.
>
>The $425 million Kopp Emerging Growth fund, started at $10 per share
>in October 1997 -- the top of the market -- dipped below $5 last
>October, before rebounding to $10.60 recently.
>
>Many who left Kopp last year headed for the big-cap index funds, such
>as the S&P 500, which have done so well in recent years as investors
>"fled to quality" as high-technology stocks were pummelled alternately
>by the economic meltdowns in Russia and Asia and then the U.S. market swoon.
>
>Now that the dust has settled, demand for semi-conductor chips, the
>brains of everything computerized, telecommunications and Internet-related
>equipment is picking up in the United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
>
>There's evidence that big portfolio managers, worried about valuations
>of 30 to 50 times earnings of America's largest stocks, are starting
>to buy into smaller, Kopp-sized companies that have higher growth rates
>but lower price-earnings ratios. The public has yet to return full force.
>
>Kopp's biggest holdings in his aggressive portfolios and the mutual fund
>include SDL Inc., Rational Software, Digital Microwave, ADC Telecommunications,
>AVT Corp. and Macrovision. Most have had nice six-to eight-month runs.
>
>At a Kopp client meeting attended by a whopping 1,000 brokers and clients
>this week, Roger Ibbotson, the respected chairman of Ibbotson Associates
>and professor of finance at Yale University, predicted that small caps,
>which have paled for about three or four years, will swing back in vogue.
>
>Ibbotson, renowned for his prediction made in 1975 that the Dow Jones
>industrials would hit 10,000 in 1998, believes small stocks will continue
>to outperform big ones -- as has been the case over time.
>
>"You pay less on average for a small-cap stock with the same cashflows
>and a higher-growth expectation," Ibbotson said.
>
>Kopp is betting on it.
>
>"Our goal continues to be 15 to 20 percent annual returns over the long term,"
>Kopp said. "I really think, as you look backward and at Roger's growth rates,
>it's doable for as far as you can see. As the world becomes more sophisticated,
>the demand for telecommunications equipment is going to continue. And we're
>far ahead of the rest of the world. They're going to buy into [American]
>technology as Russia and China and other countries upgrade their equipment."
>
>Kopp, a 39-year investment veteran, left Dain Rauscher nine years ago to start
>his own management firm. He's whupped the indexes over time. But his concentrated
>style is not for the weak-kneed who can't take the swings in stocks that are
>wiring a volatile world.
>
>Kopp will be Bob (Big Bet) Potter's guest on Minnesota Public Radio's Sound
>Money (91.1 FM in the Twin Cities) at 10 a.m. Saturday. |
