Henry Blodget, Internet analyst at Merrill Lynch, jumped on the AOL
bandwagon with a reiteration of his "buy" rating and $150 price target.
AOL also received plaudits from analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
and Lehman Bros. on Wednesday which helped to kick off the
momentum behind the stock. Given that Bernstein's Tom Wolzien has a
$105 price target and Lehman's Brian Oakes is still sticking to his $200
price goal, Blodget's call appears to in the ballpark.
AOL also signed up another taker for its popular
Instant Messenger service, this time to address the
corporate market. Novell (NOVL: news, msgs)
and AOL are teaming up to integrate AOL's Instant
Messenger product into Novell's directory
software. AOL hopes to strengthen its platform of
some 40 million users of that software product.
The announcement comes a day after Bob Pittman, AOL's president,
pumped up investor morale on a Morgan Stanley conference call. Pittman
highlighted the company's advertising and e-commerce contracts as well
as AOL's ability to increase its subscriber base.
Besides AOL, other marquee Web companies were making progress on
the upside as well. EBay (EBAY: news, msgs) marched up 4.2 percent
while Amazon.com (AMZN: news, msgs) gained just under a
percent.Yahoo (YHOO: news, msgs), meanwhile, barely budged, but
landed in positive territory nonetheless.
Catch them if you can
Healtheon (HLTH: news, msgs) ran up 4 1/16, or 14 percent, to 34 1/8
despite posting a larger-than-expected second-quarter loss of 25 cents a
share, compared with the First Call projection of a loss of 22 cents per
share.
Mpath (MPTH: news, msgs) rose 1 7/8, or 19
percent, to 11 7/8. John Powers at BancBoston
Robertson Stephens said the stock had dropped to
a "compelling valuation." In a note to clients,
Powers said Mpath's multi-user real-time
interaction software will become increasingly
important as "growing bandwidth creates an ever more compelling user
experience."
Shares of Ariba (ARBA: news, msgs) were fired up again, racing up 7
1/2, or 7 percent, to 115 3/8, to 116 1/2, extending Wednesday's 19
percent surge. Ian Mortan, who's part of Hambrecht & Quist's growing
Internet team, started coverage on the business-to-business Web wonder
with a "buy" rating. Mortan called Ariba "one of the key first-movers in an
important new technology space."
AutoWeb.com (AWEB: news, msgs) surged 1
1/16, or 12 percent, to 10 1/4 after Credit Suisse
First Boston reiterated its "buy" rating on the online
car dealer. AutoWeb announced plans to offer
consumers the option to buy cars directly as a
complement the company's dealer-referral model.
Lise Buyer, an Internet analyst at CS First Boston, said it's a "smart move
from both the offensive and defensive perspective," as the direct model
will appeal to a number of "savvy" car buyers.
Internet music company MP3.com (MPPP: news, msgs) topped the
charts for biggest Net movers as well, climbing 4, or 14 percent, to 32.
See Thom Calandra's StockWatch.
Shares of 24/7 Media (TFSM: news, msgs) ran up another 2 1/4, or 8
percent, to 29 after gaining 17 percent Wednesday. After the market
closed Tuesday, the online advertising agency reported a
narrower-than-expected loss of $5 million, or 26 cents a share, excluding
amortization of goodwill. Quarterly sales grew 50 percent sequentially to
$17.2 million.
Xoom.com (XMCM: news, msgs) shot up 2 9/16,
or 8 percent, to 34 3/4 after a 7 percent jump
Wednesday. Tom Rogers, president of NBC's
cable unit, told CBS.MarketWatch.com that the
three-way merger of General Electric's (GE: news,
msgs) NBC unit; Snap.com, the Web site jointly
operated by NBC and CNet (CNET: news, msgs); and Xoom.com is set
to close by October.
Priceline.com (PCLN: news, msgs), which had a stunning market debut
earlier this year, went back to the public market for another round, raising
$302 million. The 5 million-share offering, led by Morgan Stanley and
Goldman Sachs, is putting pressure on shares of the name-your-price
online marketplace. Priceline.com fell 2 11/16, or 4 percent, to 67 5/16.
In the money
Some financial-related Net stocks extended
Wednesday's gains. E -Trade (EGRP: news, msgs)
raced up 15/16, or 4 percent, to 24 3/8. DLJdirect
(DIR: news, msgs) ran up 5 percent, with a 7/8
pop to 19 9/16. TD Waterhouse (TWE: news,
msgs) climbed 7/16 to 15 3/16, and Ameritrade
(AMTD: news, msgs) rose 13/16, or 4 percent, to 22 1/2. Charles
Schwab (SCH: news, msgs) saw its shares increase by2 3/4, or 7
percent, to 41.
But E-Loan (EELN: news, msgs) lost 2 1/16, or 9 percent, to 22 5/16.
Bambi Francisco is Internet editor for CBS MarketWatch.
|
