Great Article Just In.......
Networking Stocks Surge
Behind 3Com
(05/28/97; 4:30 p.m. EDT)
By Larry Dignan, TechInvestor
NEW YORK -- Networking stocks surged
Wednesday after Robertson Stephens & Co.
upgraded 3Com, but the Dow and Nasdaq
were flat.
The Dow was off 26.18 to 7357.23 and the
Nasdaq gained .97 to 1410.18.
3Com [COMS] gained 4 3/8 to 51 1/8, a jump
of 9 percent, after Robertson Stephens
upgraded the stock to a buy from a market
performer. More than 24.7 million shares
traded hands.
Robertson Stephens analyst Paul Johnson said
the upgrade reflected investor expectations and
improving business trends.
``Business appears to be getting better in the
networking industry,'' said Johnson in a
statement. ``We have felt for some time that
demand throughout the networking industry
would be back-end loaded this year, with
growth in the second half of the year stronger
than the first half.
3Com's upgrade fueled other networking issues
on the Nasdaq. Cisco [CSCO] was up 5/16 to
69 1/16, Ascend [ASND] gained 4 to 59 1/2,
Fore Systems [FORE] jumped 1 7/8 to 16 5/8
and U.S. Robotics [USRX], 3Com's merger
partner, added 7 3/4 to 88 1/2.
On the New York Stock Exchange, Bay
Networks [BAY] jumped 2 5/8 to 25 3/8 after
SoundView Financial upgraded the company to
a buy from a hold and Cabletron [CS] rallied to
2 7/8 to 45 7/8, a 52-week high.
Other tech stocks, however, were mixed. Intel
[INTC] was down 2 3/16 to 167 1/8. The
company said it was countersuing Digital
Equipment. Digital [DEC] was down 1 1/4 to
36.
Microsoft [MSFT] also fell, losing 3/4 to 125
7/8, while Dell [DELL] gained 2 3/8 to 115
5/8.
CUC International [CU] was heavily traded,
falling 1 11/16 to 23 5/16, on news of the
company's merger with HFS [HFS], which was
down 4 1/2 to 54 1/2. CUC also met estimates
with first quarter earnings of 17 cents a share.
IBM [IBM] gained 3/8 to 90 after splitting its
stock, AT&T [T] dipped 1/2 to 37, Micron
Technology [MU] was up 3/4 to 43 3/8 and
Seagate [SEG] jumped 1 3/8 to 44 1/4. |
