I bought this stock at a peak of 30 last year and sold off in
discouragement at 26, shortly before it hit the teens. What
bad luck, now I can't afford to buy in. Anyway, I'm
wondering why the investment community has been so skeptical
of this long profitable company for a year now and suddenly it's
practically doubling in price every week.
Institutions and analysts have been more skeptical of
NTBK than many other Net companies. What's really
changed here? I wonder if it has something to do with the fact
that NTBK has had a relatively small advertising
budgetm until recently, when it began a marketing blitzkrieg
campaign.
NTBK avoids the "adverse selection" of bricks&mortar banks, which
cater to costly teller-using customers and other traditional
inefficiencies. Despite much lower costs
I was surprised that they could be so profitable so early while
offering the highest yielding CD's and MM rates in the country.
Wow.
It's big news on the wire that some major bricks&mortar
bank is expanding it's online bill payment system
(proprietary, avoiding intermediaries like CheckFree).
Speaking of CheckFree, it's literally down the street from NetB@nk
(both are here in Atlanta), and another poster mentioned they
handle NTBK's online bill payment. Has anyone used it, I haven't
gotten around to trying it?
My experience with NTBK customer service has been mixed, but
the flexibility, high yield, liquidity, and low committment required
($100) of their high-yield (around 5.2% APY now, I think) money-market
checking accounts is absolutely amazing. No other financial
institution in the world comes close to NTBK's offering here.
In addition to being a longtime NTBK customer and former NTBK
shareholder, I'm an E*Trade customer and EGRP shareholder.
What are the possibilities of NTBK being acquired by EGRP?
I believe that such an acquisition might be subject
to prohibitive federal regulations. But I've noticed the services
of EGRP and NTBK are beginning to blend together.
EGRP CEO Christos Cotsakos has long proclaimed that brokerage services
will become a relatively small part of E*Trade's business as they
vertically integrate banking, insurance, and investment services.
The oft-proclaimed "one-stop financial stop".
According to my E*Trade checkbook, EGRP is currently
affiliated with United Missouri Bank (I've never heard of
them). Why not dump them for a killer EGRP-NTBK combo?
That would create an online financial gorilla.
If they don't combine, aren't they going to be competing in the
same space eventually?
I believe NTBK has a parent company, a bricks&mortar in Carolina,
I wonder how they fit into the big picture?
PS. If you dig into the NTBK analyst-coverage archives, I think
you'll have a good laugh at what you find. One of the few
analysts covering it 9 months ago set a one-year price target
somewhere over 30 and rated "strong buy" then downgraded it
twice later, citing "valuation concerns" although reiterating the
strength of the business. Since they voiced their "valuation
concerns", the stock has skyrocketed by dramatic proportions.
So the moral of the story is: "Fuck price targets."
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-Netconductor.com Internet Fund Investors Forum |
