More positive press:
interactive.wsj.com@2.cgi?mfmuse/text/autowire/data/BT-CO-20000602-004045.djml/&NVP=&template=atlas-srch-searchrecent-nf.tmpl&form=atlas-srch-searchrecent-nf.html&from-and=AND&to-and=AND&sort=Article-Doc-Date+desc&qand=&bool_query=sdli&dbname=%26name1%3Ddbname%26name2%3Ddbname%26name3%3Ddbname%26period%3D%3A720&location=article&HI=
<<<
June 2, 2000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TIP SHEET: Deja Vu All Over Again For Kopp Fund
By RICHARD GIBSON
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Recent weeks have held some deja vu days for Kopp Investment Advisors' Emerging Growth Fund.
The fund debuted at what proved an inauspicious time - just days before the 1997 Asian economic blowup.
"It hit us right between the eyes," recalls Steven Crowley, one of three co-managers of what became a high-yield portfolio weighted with communications technology stocks. "We'd built a large number of positions that were severely punished by investor perceptions surrounding the crisis."
But the managers stuck to their beliefs and, Crowley says, "we were handsomely rewarded."
And during the tech selloff of recent weeks, they remembered that earlier experience of steady-as-you-go despite market turbulence.
"It's not shaken our long-term strategy at all," Crowley told Dow Jones Newswires. "We continue to feel very good about the business fundamentals at a broad swath of our holdings," he said, adding, "if we had any degree of doubt we'd be pretty antsy."
Although some of its major stakes have lost 40% or more of their value in the recent selloffs, "we're still one of the few who can say we're up meaningfully year to date," he said late last month. As of Thursday, the fund was up 29.5% year to date.
Its largest single holding - "enthusiastically so," Crowley says - continues to be fiber-optics components maker SDL Inc. (SDLI). Known for its high-performance optical components, SDL is in a field with "tremendous growth," Crowley says. One example: underwater long-distance communications. The Kopp Emerging Growth Fund owns about 750,000 shares of SDL. ADC Telecommunications Inc. (ADCT) also is a core Kopp holding. So is Digital Microwave Corp. (DMIC), which makes high-speed, high-capacity wireless radios for use as fiber-optic traffic movers.
>>>>>>>>
interactive.wsj.com@4.cgi?mfmuse/text/autowire/data/BT-CO-20000602-005033.djml/&NVP=&template=atlas-srch-searchrecent-nf.tmpl&form=atlas-srch-searchrecent-nf.html&from-and=AND&to-and=AND&sort=Article-Doc-Date+desc&qand=&bool_query=sdli&dbname=%26name1%3Ddbname%26name2%3Ddbname%26name3%3Ddbname%26period%3D%3A720&location=article&HI=
>>>>
June 2, 2000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SMARTMONEY.COM: Reversal of Fortune
By DAWN SMITH and HAYLEY GREEN
NEW YORK -- Just when May looked like a washout for technology funds, they made a comeback in the eleventh hour. Overall, tech funds still fell 3.5% in the past month, but they sprang to life in the week ended Thursday, rising 14.3%. Fueling this performance was the Nasdaq Composite Index, which rose 11.8% over the past five days, including a record-setting rally of 7.94% on Tuesday.
Optimism was rampant at the PBHG Technology & Communications fund (PBTCX), which climbed 20.9% this week, making it the best-performing U.S. stock fund for the period, according to Lipper. And portfolio manager Jeff Wrona didn't want to see it end. Thrilled to see the Nasdaq up 200 points in the midafternoon, he added, "Hopefully it will be at 300 by day's end."
After restructuring the fund's portfolio in March and April, when he sold off many larger stocks, today Wrona is relying on smaller stocks, such as Web infrastructure company InfoSpace (INSP), fiber-optic chipmaker SDL (SDLI) and Sycamore Networks (SCMR), all among the portfolio's top 10 holdings and top performers for the week.
Robert Horton, portfolio manager at Scudder Technology (SCUTX), up 18% this week, also watched SDL shine. But he notes that the company has been reporting good news for most of the past two months. "Even under bad conditions it was overperforming because it has great fundamentals," Horton says. Other stocks standing out in the portfolio are Applied Materials (AMAT) and Micron Technology (MU).
Among Firsthand Funds' five tech funds, Firsthand Technology Innovators (TIFQX) and Firsthand Technology Value (TVFQX) stood among the top five U.S. stock funds this week, up 19.3% and 18.5%, respectively. Citing a buy-and-hold strategy that has guided the portfolios through the recent volatility, manager Kevin Landis sees strength in optical networking and digital-subscriber lines, two areas in which Firsthand is getting "about as much exposure as we can get," Landis says.
In the optical-networking arena, Landis likes Corning (GLW), which is building off its historical strength in the fiber sector by putting together a fuller suite of technology products. Another pick is DSL player GlobeSpan (GSPN), which is selling to giants such as Lucent Technologies (LU) and Cisco Systems (CSCO). . . .
>>>>>>> |
