Our call on VERT today,,
VERT
96 1/4
+23 1/4
delayed 20 mins - disclaimer
Wednesday March 10, 5:10 pm Eastern Time
VerticalNet soars on e-commerce optimism
NEW YORK, March 10 (Reuters) - Shares of VerticalNet soared 31 percent on Wednesday as investors, optimistic about expected growth in the business-to-business Web commerce market, snapped up the stock, which went public one month ago.
''Web stocks have been strong but, in particular, Web stocks of ... business-to-business services companies (have performed well),'' said Hambrecht & Quist analyst James Pettit.
''(There are) a finite number of names that the Internet-investing money has been going after and (VerticalNet) has been marked as a tier-one name in this kind of market,'' he added.
Shares of VerticalNet jumped to 96-1/4, up 23-1/4, just before the close of trade, after reaching a 52-week high of 102 earlier in the session.
Horsham, Pa.-based VerticalNet sold 3.5 million at 16 a share in its initial public offering on Feb. 10.
Pettit, who rates the stock at buy, said ''e-commerce'' companies are in the spotlight, especially in light of predictions that sales between businesses over the Web will expand sharply in coming years.
The global electronic commerce sales will grow to $4 trillion by 2003, with about 90 percent of the sales occuring between businesses, according to Steve Harmon, senior investment analyst at Internet.Com LLC. |
