The article indicates, as has been noted on this board, that FDX represents a backdoor internet play. Internet stocks have exploded recently. The last comment in the article notes that FDX could be looked at as an internet stock. The investment community has now opened their eyes to this possibility.
FDX
77 7/16 , + 10 3/16
News
FedEx delivers the online goods - Barron's
Sunday, December 6, 1998 03:50 PM
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NEW YORK, Dec 6 (Reuters) - FedEx Founder and Chief Executive Fred Smith expects to benefit
"immensely" from the boom in Internet sales, as FedEx is delivering a good part of as much as $21
billion worth of products to be sold online this year, Barron's reported in its Dec. 7 edition.
"As this revolution continues, we are going to benefit immensely, and benefit to a far greater degree
than many people expect," the report quoted Smith as saying.
The company's stock could double due to such a boom, Jim Coxon, one of the original backers of
Smith and now investment committee chairman of the New York State Teachers Retirement System
pension fund, said in the report.
Coxon pointed out that, after 25 years, the company's network of planes, trucks, vans and operating
hubs is finally in place, lowering the capital-intensive aspect of the business. Coxon told Barron's he
thought FedEx's stock "should be a $100 stock today, and maybe a $200 stock a year out."
The world's largest air express package carrier is already delivering the Christmas cheer that is flying,
often on FedEx planes, out of online retailers' warehouses. This comes at the time after FedEx
received its own early Christmas present, when FedEx pilots backed off earlier threats to strike during
the Christmas season.
Memphis, Tennessee-based FDX, the parent of FedEx, could then be viewed as a kind of Internet
stock, the report said, and trading at only 17 times next year's projected earnings, a cheap one at that. |
