December 29, 1998 18:19
The Motley Fool's Market Movers (Heroes)
December 29, 1998/FOOLWIRE/ -- Investors apparently realized
Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) isn't the only company selling books these days,
rewarding Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), the nation's largest retail
bookseller, and competitor Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) for their efforts today
(maybe it was all those holiday shopping trips to actual stores that did the
trick). Barnes & Noble advanced $4 1/8 to $44 3/16 after a Morgan Stanley
Dean Witter analyst reiterated an "outperform" rating and raised his target
price on the company to $45 from $35 per share based on increased
recognition of the company's Internet division, while Borders moved ahead $1
5/8 to 25 in tandem. Meanwhile, Amazon dropped $19 5/8 to $332 5/16, while
Books-A-Million (Nasdaq: BAMM), which rode a revamped press release -- uh,
that is, website -- to big gains not too long ago, continued its run of
Trouble, sliding $7/8 to $15 1/8.
Elsewhere in the world of retail, direct marketer ValueVision International
(Nasdaq: VVTV) blasted its old 52-week high of $7 1/2 per share, jumping
ahead $5 1/8, or 82%, to $11 3/8 today. The company said its television home
shopping division saw pre-Christmas December sales 70% above last year's
levels while pre-Christmas Q4 sales were up more than 50%. The clincher for
ValueVision's rapid and voluminous rise -- over 26 million shares traded
today, more than 14 times the company's 30-day average -- might have been
this statement: "Electronic commerce sales continue to increase at a far
greater percentage than television sales." Two other e-tailing stars from
yesterday continued to move like Superman in an emergency, as apparel
marketer Active Apparel Group (Nasdaq: AAGP) grabbed $7 1/2 to $19 after
jumping $10 1/4 yesterday, and in-flight catalog and online retailer SkyMall
Inc. (Nasdaq: SKYM) added $5 3/16 to $40 3/4 after loading up $23 in
yesterday's session.
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