Another article Ritch:
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Internet stocks snapped out of their recent
doldrums as the selling pressure appeared to abate, but Friday's action
suggests the rally may not have legs.
The Amex Internet index added 1.7 percent for the
day, after trading higher earlier.
The Goldman Sachs Internet Index rose 1 percent,
after being up as much as 4.7 percent in earlier
trading Friday.
For the week, the index was down 3.4 percent.
Contributing to the decline were America Online
(AOL: news, msgs), down 2.9 percent for the
week; Yahoo (YHOO: news, msgs), which
suffered a 6.9 percent loss; and CMGI (CMGI:
news, msgs), off 1.7 percent..
"There's still an absence of good news out there,"
said Roy Howard of Circle T Partners. "Investors
are conditioned to buy on the dips (but) I don't
know if the Net group has turned the corner."
"There doesn't seem to be much broad strength
here," said Paul Merenbloom, an Internet analyst at
Prudential Securities. "We've seen so many of these stocks fall sharply,"
he said, adding that the buying didn't look "overwhelming."
Priceline.com ka-ching
Among the few Internet stocks whose performance did fall into the
"overwhelming" category was Priceline.com (PCLN: news, msgs). The
newest Net e-commerce darling, which debuted in late March, has
captivated Wall Street with its name-your-price online retail model.
The stock jumped 24 9/16 on Friday, or 18 percent, to 162 3/8. In just
over a month as a publicly traded company, Priceline's stock is up a
staggering 915 percent. That huge gain makes EBay's (EBAY: news,
msgs) 178 percent run-up in its first post-IPO month look modest.
Priceline.com is now worth $23 billion. Yet when it reports first-quarter
results next Tuesday, it's only expected to generate $44 million in sales,
roughly the figure at which some analysts estimate Amazon's (AMZN:
news, msgs) music sales. And while Amazon's total quarterly sales of
$293.6 million are nearly seven times more than Priceline's, investors
value Amazon's stock at some $27 billion.
Meanwhile, not only does EBay's growth pale in comparison, so does its
valuation. The online auction company had a stock market value of $2
billion a month after it went public last September. EBay is now worth
$26 billion. It sold $541 million worth of products in the first quarter.
To be fair, Priceline.com is growing rapidly. It achieved its first $1 million
day when it sold 5,000 air tickets Wednesday.
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**** I especially like the part about priceline.com having annual revenues in the area of 44mil. MCF may come near that.... **** |
