Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kaliico who wrote (14910)	11/13/1999 1:05:00 PM
From: Densiebj	Respond to of 57584

Rande and all Would you take a look at nxra and see what you see? here's an article at Briefing.com dated November 10th By now you probably know all the leading names in the Internet professional services group: Scient Corp (SCNT), Viant (VIAN), Proxicom (PXCM), USWeb (USWB), etc... Last week, we introduced to many of you one of the newest players on the scene, Circle.com (CIRC); which we are happy to report has rallied as much as 68% over the past week, on consistently heavy volume (2 mln shares traded Tuesday). Lexington, MA-based consulting services company Nextera Enterprises (NXRA 6 15/16) is our latest find. Trading Points Briefing.com first highlighted Nextera on May 18, the day of its initial public offering (see Story Stock archives). As the tone of that piece suggested, we didn't like the deal from the start. The stock's 65% plunge from its $10 IPO price to its October 13 low suggests that we weren't the only ones who were wary of this offering. But a lot has changed over the past three months. The momentum crowd has moved into the consulting group with guns blazing. For example, Scient (SCNT) has risen as much as 190% since the beginning of August, while AppNet (APNT) has soared 510% from its June 24 low. On the morning of October 22, traders were so eager to get into Viant (VIAN) following its blow-out quarterly report, the stock opened for trading almost 37 points above the previous day's closing price. Although Nextera has yet to appear on the radar screens of momentum players, the stock has, nevertheless, benefitted from the recent boom. Over the past three weeks, NXRA has almost doubled. Volume has also picked up, with stock trading 1.5 mln shares Tuesday, or more than 5 times average daily turnover. To our surprise, the fundamentals of this company appear to be very strong. Based on a First Call survey of four analysts, Nextera is expected to turn a profit of $0.21 a share this year and $0.40 in 2000, translating to P/Es of 33 and 17.5. For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Nextera posted earnings of $0.06 a share, an improvement of 50% from the year-ago period. Revenues jumped 129% to $40.1 mln and backlog increased 23%. . On August 4, the company boosted its e-commerce and e-business offerings by combining three of its business units into a new organization, Nextera Interactive. Given growth, valuation and momentum, would seem that nothing but open road ahead for this stock. Well we wouldn't wager the kids' college fund on it, as there is something that still doesn't feel right about this company. Perhaps its that Nextera's CEO walked (or was shoved) out the door less than six months after the IPO. Maybe it's that Nextera's parent-company, Knowledge Universe was founded by junk bond czar Michael Milken and his brother Lowell. Or the uneasiness could derive from the less-than-sterling history of growth-through-acquisition oriented companies. While current fundamentals appear compelling, have a gut feeling that Nextera is going to blow-up one of these days. As a result, would be wary of holding the stock during "earnings warning season." But given the proper spin, the stock is likely to attract institutional buyers, with effort assisted by strength of company's underwriting team: Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, BB Robertson Stephens and Alex. Brown.