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.

Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GST who wrote (87503)	12/15/1999 8:11:00 AM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Gst, I thought you might find this interesting. I've been in Japanese funds for over a year, and very pleased with my results. I have bought only 3 individual Japanese stocks Softbank,Sony and Trans Cosmos. Have you invested in Trans Cosmos? << Tokyo, Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Shares in Trans Cosmos Inc. rose for a ninth day, soaring almost 9 percent to an all-time high amid mounting optimism the Tokyo-based provider of computer- related services may be set to join Softbank Corp. as one of Japan's predominant investors in Internet companies. Trans Cosmos rose its exchange-imposed limit of 3,000 yen to 36,800, bringing to 88 percent gains in the last nine days. The stock has climbed more than elevenfold this year, 22 times gains by the Topix index of all issues on the first section of the Tokyo exchange. Investors are betting that the 15-year-old company, which earns a third of its $400 million in annual sales operating call centers and help desks for computer makers, is poised to profit from a portfolio of Internet investments that has been largely overlooked while dot-com fever has pushed shares in Softbank to records. Trans Cosmos has been investing in U.S. Internet companies for the last five years and bringing the most promising of them to Japan, forming local ventures with the likes of Liquid Audio Inc. and DoubleClick Co. ``Trans Cosmos's Internet business is blooming,' said Nobuyuki Tsuboi, an analyst at Nikko Salomon Smith Barney Ltd. ``In the U.S. its earliest round of investments have started generating returns, and in Japan the e-commerce revolution is just beginning.' Tsuboi rated Trans Cosmos's stock ``outperform' when he began covering the company in June, and reiterated that assessment last month. The latest incentive to buy was provided by Tokyo-Mitsubishi Securities Co. analyst Nobuyasu Morimoto, who issued a report about Trans Cosmos last week in which he set a long-term target price of 60,000 yen for its shares. He said he expects group earnings per share to triple over the next two years, pointing to the growth of its telemarketing business and planned stock sales by Internet affiliates. Buying Frenzy Trans Cosmos has become the target of a buying frenzy in recent sessions amid perceptions its stock has been undervalued by a market in which shares in Softbank and other Internet- related companies are fetching more than a thousand times estimated earnings. At 36,800 yen, Trans Cosmos is trading at 640 times the 57.5 yen its shares are expected to earn for the year through March 2000 by Toyo Keizai Inc., a financial information service. That's less than a fourth of Toyo's estimated price-to- earnings ratio of 2,400 for Softbank, Japan's biggest backer of Internet companies. The record-breaking performances by Trans Cosmos, Softbank and other Japanese Internet-related companies including Hikari Tsushin Inc. and Yahoo Japan Corp. come against the backdrop of gains by U.S. technology stocks. The rise of the Nasdaq Composite Index to a 28-year-high has encouraged Japanese trust funds and individual investors alike to seek out dot-com connections across a spectrum of industries. Founded in 1985, Trans Cosmos is forecasting a group profit this year of 1.6 billion yen, double last year's 679 million yen, on sales of 48.8 billion yen, up 27 percent. It has accumulated more than $600 million in gains on its investments in more than a dozen listed U.S. Internet companies including Amazon.com Inc. and has stakes in a similar number of Japanese ventures with foreign partners. Analysts expect the company to remain in the market spotlight as a number of its affiliates prepare to sell shares on a newly formed Japanese stock exchange for startups. Liquid Audio Japan K.K., in which Trans Cosmos holds a 7 percent stake, will go public on the Market of the High-Growth and Emerging Stocks on Dec. 22. Dec/15/1999 1:49