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Technology Stocks : Comverse Technology -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Ambrose who wrote (1099)	4/6/2000 5:56:00 PM
From: Mark Ambrose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1331

Merrill Lynch's new Broadband HOLDR fund (that holds Comverse) began trading today. cbs.marketwatch.com Broadband fund may be good bet By Jeffry Bartash, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 4:33 PM ET Apr 6, 2000 WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Looking to invest in hot "broadband stocks" but can't afford the penthouse prices or aren't sure which companies to pick? Take a look at Merrill Lynch's new Broadband HOLDRs (pronounced "holders"), an investment vehicle that began trading Thursday on the American Stock Exchange. The $550 million holder (BDH: news, msgs) invests in 20 of the companies expected to play a key role in the development of technologies aiming at giving consumers and businesses affordable access to high-speed data and Internet connections. <snip> By putting money in such a vehicle, which acts like a single stock, investors can play the hot "broadband" market even if they're unsure which companies will be the winners. And though its current price of 95 might seem kind of high, 12 of the stocks in the fund trade well above that level, making it a more affordable vehicle for, as well as a more diverse way of, investing in the sector. By and large, the holder concentrates on telecommunications equipment makers. While hundreds of carriers will compete for the business of consumers and companies, the carriers likely will buy their gear from only a few dozen software and hardware suppliers. If there's a war going on, as analysts like to say, it's best to buy the guys who provide the ammunition. In this case, that's the equipment makers. Though the fund includes 20 companies, almost half the index is weighted to the two of the equipment giants -- Lucent Technologies (LU: news, msgs) and Nortel Networks (NT: news, msgs). "We want somethin truly representative of the sector. The biggest players in the industry ought to account for a bigger portion of the basket," Steve Bodurtha, head of Customized Investments at Merrill Lynch, told CBS.MarketWatch.com One surprise omission: Cisco Systems (CSCO: news, msgs). Bodurtha said Merrill Lynch considered including the networking giant, which is the biggest U.S. company in terms of stock market valuation. Yet he noted that Cisco is already in the brokerage's Internet infrastructure holder, which the firm believes is the more appropriate place for the company. "Cisco is part of so much that's going on" in the telecom world, he noted. Below is a listing of the other 18 stocks, all but four rose sharply Thursday after the introduction of the new holders fund: * Motorola (MOT: news, msgs); * Qualcomm (QCOM: news, msgs); * JDS Uniphase (JDSU: news, msgs); * Broadcom (BRCM: news, msgs); * Corning (GLW: news, msgs); * Sycamore Networks (SCMR: news, msgs); * Applied Micro Circuits (AMCC: news, msgs); * Tellabs (TLAB: news, msgs); * Terayon Communications Systems (TERN: news, msgs); * PMC-Sierra (PMCS: news, msgs); * Comverse Technology (CMVT: news, msgs); * SDL Inc. (SDLI: news, msgs); * Conextant Systems (CNXT: news, msgs); * Next Level Communications (NXTV: news, msgs); * RF Micro Devices (RFMD: news, msgs); * Scientific-Atlanta (SFA: news, msgs); * Ciena (CIEN: news, msgs); and * Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN: news, msgs). ----------------------------------------------------------- < snipped >