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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ggamer who wrote (67643)	2/22/2000 12:28:00 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Mutual Funds Feb 22, 2000 Transamerica Premier Equity's Tech Favorites Associate Editor: Len Hollie (2/22/00) Jeff Van Harte, manager of the $300 million Transamerica Premier Equity Fund (NASDAQ:TEQUX - news) says that the recent volatility in the technology sector doesn?t faze him. It?s to be expected But he does admit that he has taken some of his technology stock profits off table after three good years of growth. The fund now has 62% of its assets in the technology sector. ?We?re not taking money off the table because of volatility, but because valuations are higher and margins were bigger and we see other opportunities that we want to take advantage of, such as in the mid cap sector,? says Van Harte, who also manages about $5 billion for Transamerica. ?Our traditional thought process on volatility is that it is not necessarily an indicator of risk in terms of what is the probability of loss of your initial investment,? he says. ?We?re always looking for more mundane businesses that can apply and use technology to its advantage.? Through February 17, the fund was up 3%, after returning 33.3% in 1999; 33.8% in 1998; and 47.5% in 1997. Van Harte says he doesn?t see the market broadening beyond its focus on technology on technology and growth stocks, despite the recent upturn on small cap stocks. The fact that the small cap laden Russell 2000 index, which has returned 10.63% through Thursday, has outperformed the S&P 500 Index, which is down 5.51% during the same period, does not persuade him. ?I don?t see the market broadening out to such sectors as manufacturing, commodities or utilities,? notes Van Harte. ?Those sectors have been around for a long time, but they?re really not the true growth drivers of the economy. But from time to time, they have their moments in the sun.? Van Harte, however does believe that the technology sector is broadening because the Internet has spawned so many different applications and platforms. ?The way I see technology now is that it is finding new platforms and functionality. As much as we?ve liked our big cap holdings like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - news) and Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO - news) , we see other areas that are likewise going to be big in the future. So, we?ve been trimming some of those in order to take advantage of some of the new ideas we see in the market,? Van Harte says. Van Harte says he sees growth opportunity in the wireless sector and he made three purchases in the fourth quarter: Vodafone Airtouch PLC (NYSE:VOD - news) , the UK-based giant is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company, and it operates in 23 countries and has almost 28 million customers. The company recently concluded its 2 «-month, $181 billion hostile takeover of German telecom Mannesmann (NASDAQ:MNNSY - news) . Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM - news) , which provides digital wireless communications products, applications and services based on its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology. ?Qualcomm has wireless modems that will work at 2.4 megabits per second, which is exponentially faster than the fastest landline,? says Van Harte. ?What we will need to see is that in order for CDMA to proliferate, we will need to the kinds of base stations that can handle that kind of speed and those kinds of data transmissions,? he adds. CDMA is a 'spread spectrum' technology that it spreads the information contained in a particular signal of interest over a much greater bandwidth than the original signal. RF Micro Devices (NASDAQ:RFMD - news) , which designs, develops, manufactures and markets proprietary radio frequency integrated circuits, or RFICs, for wireless communications applications such as cellular and personal communication services, cordless telephones, and wireless local area networks. ?Their chips allow you to get a cleaner feed and less battery usage. We think RF Micro is really the leader there. We see it developing as a mini-Intel in that space,? says Van Harte. ?This is what I mean by broadening. Where was RF Micro five years ago?? Van Harte believes wireless technology is riding higher now. ?Through the creation of the Internet we are getting away from the desktop and getting information in a wireless form,? he says. Bottom Line: The Transamerica Premier Equity fund is making a bet on wireless applications as the best engine for growth, and it has corralled a number of the best names in that space to aid the fund?s advance.