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Claims a fifth of e-commerce software market
By Brenon Daly, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 5:11 PM ET Apr 6, 1999 Software Report
BURLINGTON, Mass. (CBS.MW) -- Shares of Open Market jumped 16 percent on
heavy trading Tuesday after the company said it is the largest seller of
software that lets people buy and sell online.
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Updated:
4/7/99 9:35:28 AM ET
In a release, Open Market (OMKT) said it held 20 percent of the
e-commerce software market. That put it ahead of rival such as
BroadVision (BVSN), IBM (IBM) and Oracle (ORCL), according to numbers
from market researcher Dataquest.
The long and the short of it
"The company is in pretty good shape," said Alex Arnold, analyst at H.C.
Wainwright in Boston. The release "re-affirms that they are dominating a
fairly important space."
He added "short covering" may have also played a role in the stock's
rise. About 4.5 million shares of the company's 11 million share float
are sold short.
A short sale involves borrowing shares and selling them, hoping to buy
them back at a lower price to pocket the profit. Repurchasing the shares
is known as "covering" and that buying pressure can push shares higher.
The stock rose 1 7/8 to 14 on volume that was more than three times as
heavy as average. Shares gained as much as 22 percent during the
session.
"It's one of the reasonably priced Net stocks," said John Puricelli,
analyst at A.G. Edwards in St. Louis. He picked up coverage of Open
Market with an "accumulate" rating on March 25.
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