To: flyboy who wrote (95183 ) 9/10/1999 12:59:00 PM From: kumqwatt Read Replies (1) | Respond to
A Dave Bannister pick :The newest buy recommendation is HOOV--- aka Hoovers Online or Hoovers. This company has been around for a very long time as a provider of financial and business related information to both consumers and businesses. When you want data on public companies, IPO's, small, mid, or large size businesses, this is where you go. As a company that went public in early July and rocketed to $33 in first day of trade, it has done nothing but fall since. Insiders are buying the stock, and the stock has plateaud in price. That said... the fundamentals are strong, no debt, cash of $2 per share, and a reasonable price to sales ratio of 10 to 1. Revenues are growing at a 70% plus clip and I think will accelerate with new initiatives. Its interesting that the market gets very hot and cold on sectors very fast. If a sector heats up, the stock really blast off in a hurry. Right now the financial infomediary sector is out of favor and this is a great time to buy stocks like Marketwatch, The Street.com, Hoovers, Insweb etc... some of them have already been moving up. Hoovers is not a sexy stock, and it has not moved up despite buy ratings and price targets of $32 etc. Also has not moved up despite several deals announced recently, alliances with AOL and Infoseek etc.... e-commerce initiatives being taken, a new revamped website... and more insightful information and commentary than their vanilla peers. HOOV will not stay down too long, I think this sector will heat up and consolidation could take place. I would purchase shares here for the aggressive investor at 10 5/8 to 11 range. Today it strode over its 10 day moving average which often signals a reversal of trend in a stock. I think its a potential double by years end as it gets more deals announced and the "property" itself becomes more valued by the street. Alot of the net plays are being valued on the value of their technology, not so much revenues or profits. How much is the technology worth to another company? A good example is Engage, 85% owned by CMGI. Came public at 15, ran to 44 first day, fell back to 25... and last two days flew up from 29 to 40 plus! The value of engage technology to potential users is incredible... hence old school valuations dont always work. I believe the same applies here to HOOV, plus the fundamental valuations of hoover are pretty reasonable.
