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Non-Tech : WS - WEIRTON STEEL is and INTERNET B TO B STEAL -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sheetmillgalvanize who wrote (8)	2/16/2000 8:27:00 PM
From: sheetmillgalvanize	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12

Wednesday February 16, 11:27 am Eastern Time RESEARCH ALERT - Weirton Steel raised to buy NEW YORK, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Salomon Smith Barney said Wednesday analyst Michelle Galanter Applebaum has upgraded Weirton Steel Corp. (NYSE:WS - news) to buy from neutral and raised her price target to $12 from $2. -- 2000 EPS estimate raised to $0.25 from $0.05 as the company returns to profitability for the first time since 1995 as a result of higher shipments, lower costs, better global fundamentals and higher steel prices. -- Weirton sells 60 percent of its steel on the spot market and therefore will be able to continue to benefit from improving spot market prices in 2000. Weirton's contract business consists entirely of tin mill products which are used to manufacture food cans and it appears these prices will rise by some 1.5 to 2.5 percent for 2000. -- Weirton's ongoing issue from a shareholder perspective is its ``prior constituency', i.e., its ESOP structure which owns 24.2 pct of the outstanding common shares and all of the preferred shares (accounts for about 45.8 percent of the voting power). While the ESOP and the employee/owners are the heart and soul of the company and the main cause for the turnaround in the past few years, it is exactly this structure that creates a drain on profits for shareholders (generous profit sharing program) as well as the ongoing governance issues in running the company with its employee partners. In the first two hours of trading on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Weirton's shares climbed 1-1/8 to 9-3/8. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More Quotes and News: Weirton Steel Corp (NYSE:WS - news) Related News Categories: US Market News -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright ¸ 2000 Yahoo! All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Terms of Service Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Questions or Comments?