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SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2000--Robertson Stephens Managing Director and Senior eConsumer Analyst Lauren Cooks Levitan today reiterated her Strong Buy rating on Priceline.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN), after the company held an upbeat investor and analyst meeting on Tuesday. Priceline, headquartered in Stamford, Conn., has developed and patented a demand collection service, allowing consumers and eventually businesses to make binding offers for goods and services at different prices below the stated "priceline".
"Priceline held its first investor and analyst day yesterday and provided an update on its expansion plans as well as its near-and long-term operating goals," said Levitan. "Yesterday was the first time for many investors to meet with the full executive management team and department managers. We believe Priceline's impressive collection of managers strongly positions the company as it executes its aggressive growth initiatives."
"While we expect Priceline to aggressively expand into new business areas during 2000, we also expect the company to show dramatic improvements in operating leverage as the core travel business continues to scale," said Levitan. "As a result, management indicated it expects to reach profitability sooner than current Street estimates for the first half of 2001."
"Management indicated yesterday that its 30 percent sequential revenue growth guidance for the first quarter could prove highly conservative," said Levitan. "We still anticipate that revenue upside to our estimate of $220 million could result in upside to our current earnings-per-share estimate of ($0.06)."
"We believe yesterday's presentations further highlighted how Priceline is still at the very beginning of an exciting growth stage," said Levitan. "We believe the company is rapidly evolving into one of the first eConsumer Omnibrands and we continue to strongly recommend purchase."
Clients interested in receiving more information should contact their salesperson at (415) 781-9700.
>PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2000--Listen to RadioWallStreet.com's interview with PaineWebber Analyst, Sarah Farley, discussing priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ:PCLN), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY), and Fogdog, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOGD) on RadioWallStreet.com, on Wednesday, March 8, 2000, Investor Broadcast Network announced.
This interview is being conducted from the PaineWebber Internet 2000 Conference in NYC. Conducting the interview will be Ann Sundius, Financial Commentator with RadioWallStreet.com. This call will be available for on-demand listening at 5:00 PM EST.
To access this RadioWallStreet.com broadcast, investors should go to radiowallstreet.com. It may be necessary for first time visitors to Radiowallstreet.com to go to the site to download and install any necessary audio software. There is no charge to access any event.
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NEW YORK , March 7 (Reuters) - Priceline.com Inc. <PCLN.O> shares fell sharply in profit-taking on Tuesday despite bullish comments by senior managers of the Internet commerce firm, analysts said.
Norwalk, Conn.-based Priceline allows consumers to name their own prices over the Internet for products and services, including airline tickets, home mortgages, hotel rooms, new cars, and groceries.
Shares of Priceline, which had surged in recent days, plunged by 11-9/16 or 12.8 percent in Nasdaq trading, ending the afternoon at 78-5/8. Volume was 13.7 million shares.
"People took profits today, after yesterday's short covering drove it" sharply "higher," said Anthony Noto, analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Noto said there was no fundamental reason for the plunge, which occurred even as Priceline senior managers gave what Noto called a bullish presentation to analysts in New York.
"The analysts' meeting today was positive and upbeat, both near-term and long-term," Noto said.
A Priceline spokesman declined comment on the stock movement.
Noto said investors simply decided to take profits after the stock's rise of the last two weeks. Priceline shares had jumped by 20 percent on Monday, after the company's chief executive said first-quarter revenues would top earlier targets and an influential analyst repeated a "strong buy" rating.
The company recently unveiled a planned expansion into Asia and Australia, and also snared Heidi Miller, former chief financial officer of Citigroup <C.N>, as its new CFO.
Earlier on Tuesday, PaineWebber raised its price target on Priceline to $125 from $95 per share, and reiterated its "buy" rating.
>NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - Shares of Priceline.com Inc. <PCLN.O> jumped nearly 15 percent on Monday as Robertson Stephens reiterated its strong buy on the company.
Shares of Priceline were up 11 at 86 in trade on the Nasdaq stock market.
The Stamford, Conn.-based company has scheduled its first analysts' meeting on Tuesday, and analyst Lauren Cooks Levitan expects positive news to come out of the meeting.
"We believe announcements timed with tomorrow's analyst event could point to upside opportunity and we strongly recommend investors repurchase shares in advance of the meeting," Cooks wrote in a research report.
She also said that Priceline's strong first quarter business trends could accelerate the company's time to reach profitability, which Robertson Stephens currently sees forecasts happening in 2001.
Monday's gains add to last week's 34 percent rise in Priceline's share price after the company made a presentation last week at Robertson Stephens technology conference, Levitan said.
Despite this run-up, shares of Priceline have substantial appreciation potential given that it is currently 55 percent off recent highs, she said. Shares traded as high as 165 on April 30.
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