BUSINESSWEEK INVESTOR -- INSIDE WALL STREET (aug 9 issue --marty)
Set to Spin Off a Web Newbie?
Project Software & Development (PSDI), which makes software systems that help businesses in maintaining their capital assets such as plants and production equipment, is certainly not an Internet stock. But of late it has been acting like one. Project's stock has more than doubled in price, going from 19 1/2 on May 6 to 43 7/16 on July 27.
Part of the reason: Project posted better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter ended June 30. The other driver: Some pros, in fact, consider Project an Internet play through a subsidiary called MRO.com. This unit complements Project's enterprise asset maintenance software with a Web network that links buyers and suppliers.
Catherine Moore of FAC/Equities, a unit of First Albany, thinks Project will spin off to shareholders its MRO.com operations. She figures that MRO.com, which she expects to post revenues of more than $6 million in fiscal 2000, is worth $500 million, or about 30 a share, based on the market value of its peers. Moore has raised her rating on Project to a buy, with a target price of 70 a share.
BY GENE G. MARCIAL
Copyright 1999, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
(http://www.businessweek.com/contents.htm) |
