**Bonus Feature #2. The 10 Most Intriguing Stock Picks presented at the 8/98 Money Show investment conference in SF. I had a blast at this conference and wanted to share some interesting ideas which I picked up.
Okay, I'm not talking about the 3 consensus picks (CSCO, WCOM and LU) of virtually all of the mutual fund managers and newsletter writers. You should be ashamed if you aren't already buying the heck out of them. The majority of the speakers also picked AOL and YHOO (however you want to value them) as stocks which you just have to own for the long-term.
My definition of "intriguing" (because 100s of companies were discussed at the conference)? A company which is commonly misunderstood, a new perspective or paradigm, value tech (just too darn cheap), and/or maybe "the next Intel, Dell or Microsoft." Now I'm sure the SEC's search robot will flag this message <<gg>>.
1. Exodus (EXDS). (36; 25-53). McDonald (Amerindo). Recent IPO. High-end ISP and web site hosting company. Beneficiary of RA/WAN outsourcing trend by large corporations. Sportsline USA/Yahoo are clients. Soros is a larger investor.
2. Telebras (TBH now, not TBR). (96.5; 83-147). Trapp (Needham Growth Fund). Braazilian phone company. $275/share value of 12 parts after 7/30/98 privatization sale.
3. Getty Images (GETY). (19.25; 17-28). Trapp (Needham Growth Fund). Digital photo images provider. Benjamin (BARS analyst) sees huge potential for GETY as an Internet play. [Note: I bought a small stake after the conference.]
4. China Telecom (CHL). (26.75; 22-43). Gordon (Guinness Flight) Largest cellular carrier in southern China. 5M subscribers; huge growth potential based on demographics and economic development. [Note: I bought more CHL after the conference]
5. Avanti (AVNT). (14.75; 12-35). VanWagoner (VanWagoner Funds). EDA software chip design company. Dirt cheap compared to PEG (35% growth with P/E in teens). He said that CDN lawsuit (related to 1st generation product; now shipping 3rd generation product) won't be resolved for years.
6. Isis Pharm (ISIP) (11.5; 11-18) and Vical Pharm (VICL) (11.25; 10-19). Michael Murphy. Biotech companies with ownership of key patents. ISIP has anti-sense tech; VICL has naked DNA tech. Many FDA approvals in the future. Murphy said the biotech sector is just hated right now by Wall St. [Note: I bought small stakes in these 2 stocks after the conference.]
7. PMC-Sierra (PMCS) (36.75; 22-51). Landis (FirstHand Funds) has $60 price target. Networking chip supplier which "could own the ATM space." CSCO/ASND are major customers. Beaten up lately due to decline of legacy products, recent acquisition and higher R&D spending.
8. Adaptec (ADPT) (13.5; 10-54). Al Frank (Prudent Speculator). At last year's conference, he picked Apple (then at $14). At this year's conference, Frank said ADPT (now $14) will be over $50 in 1 year! No one really laughed in light of his Apple pick last year.
In addition, Landis likes ADPT and says it will do well with SCSI and fibre channel products for server markets, not prior PC-market focus. He said this last point was misunderstood by the market.
9. MMC Networks (MMCN) (20.5; 12-34). Landis (FirstHand Funds). Another networking chip supplier, e.g., CSCO router processor. VanWagoner and McDonald also positively mentioned MMCN. I think they also produce chips for cable equipment.
10. Orckit Comm (ORCTF) (16.25; 12-24). Landis (FirstHand Funds). Israeli company and xDSL pure play. International play and mostly sells to European telecoms. Mentioned possible deal in the works with Deutsche Telecom.
** Cable network infrastructure equipment suppliers. Landis (FirstHand Funds). Here's where I need help because he didn't mention any names other than Broadcom (BRCM) (rather expensive) and MMCN. His argument for using cable modems for home broadband access was very convincing. I would love to hear your stock picks related to this subject.
** Cymer (CYMI) (16; 14.5-49) and Uniphase (UNPH) (55; 26-65). Landis was very positive on each company. He has bought CYMI (DUV lasers for chip makers) and is waiting for a drop in UNPH. [Note: I recently bought a little CYMI.] UNPH is a photonics backbone play.
So, I am researching all of the above picks and may purchase them at an appropriate time. I've noted my current holdings (subject to new info). I hope these ideas are useful. As always, comments or questions are appreciated by private message, djane. |
