RESEARCH ALERT - strong buy
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NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - ING Barings said on Monday it
started coverage on some electronic finance companies, putting
a hold rating on discount and online broker Charles Schwab
Corp. (NYSE:SCH) and a strong buy on E*Trade Group Inc. (NASDAQ:EGRP).
-- Analyst Andy Collins also started S1 Corp. (NASDAQ:SONE) with
a strong buy, E-LOAN Inc. (NASDAQ:EELN) with a buy and
Knight/Trimark Group Inc. (NASDAQ:NITE) with a buy.
-- Schwab's Web site generated significantly fewer hits
this year and yet the stock sells at a 26 percent premium to
the average 2000 consensus for the online brokerage group,
Collins wrote. Schwab is however, an extremely nimble and
customer-focused company, he said.
-- E*Trade has one of the best business models in the
electronic brokerage industry, Collins wrote. He set a 12-month
$50 a share target price on the company.
-- "E*Trade has transformed itself very rapidly, offering a
robust set of online brokerage products while diversifying
through several non-brokerage acquisitions over the last year,
including purchasing an online financial information provider,
an international trade execution firm, an online bank and an
ATM network," Collins wrote.
-- S1 Corp.'s main business is creating Internet interfaces
and data management information pipelines between large
mainframe legacy systems at financial institutions and their
retail customer bases, Collins wrote. In the future, Collins
said he expects S1 to act as a portal for all financial
transactions, including banking, brokerage and insurance.
-- Online mortgage and auto finance loan source E-LOAN uses
proprietary technology to software to pick the best mortgage
rate and product for an individual customer, Collins wrote. The
process eliminates the need for mortgage brokers, which
typically add 125-150 basis points to the closing price. |
