Investors busy buying after hours
Priceline, KPMG, Register.com rise on results
By Nicole Maestri, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 6:24 PM ET May 1, 2001
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Wall Street's rally extended into the evening session Tuesday, pushing stocks higher as investors shrugged off negative news in favor of positive quarterly results.
On the upside, KPMG Consulting reported third-quarter results that beat expectations by 9 cents per share. Register.com also attracted buyers, as its numbers beat expectations, boosted by a 150 percent revenue surge.
Shares of Priceline.com rose more than 10 percent - on top of a gain of more than a third during regular hours -- after the company reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss. Internet stocks powered ahead on the heels of the announcement and a late-day Nasdaq rally with CMGI (CMGI: news, msgs, alerts) up 15 percent on Island, InfoSpace (INSP: news, msgs, alerts) up 7.5 percent, and Internet Capital Group (ICGE: news, msgs, alerts) higher by 9 percent.
FRONT PAGE NEWS
Dow, Nasdaq in nifty advance
Investors busy buying after hours
Bush welcomes $1.35 trillion tax compromise
Microsoft reveals Windows security bug
Market news and more! Sign up to receive FREE email newsletters
Get the latest news
24 hours a day from our 100-person news team.
Also popular with investors were the Nasdaq's top 10 volume movers, as Oracle, Cisco, JDS Uniphase and Sun Microsystems rose in heavy volume in trading on the Island ECN.
On the downside, CNet slid as it missed expectations and cut its full-year expectations. Shares of Loudcloud slipped after the company said it would cut its work force.
DSL.net shares fumbled as the company said it said it was seeking additional funding.
The reports come after an upside trading day for both the Nasdaq Composite and the Dow industrials, as buyers made their presence known. Read Market Snapshot.
Priceline.com
Shares of Priceline.com (PCLN: news, msgs, alerts) soared nearly 36 percent in Nasdaq trading and rose another 10 percent to $7.26 in evening action after it beat Wall Street estimates when it reported a loss of 3 cents a share in the first quarter.
On average, analysts reporting to First Call/Thomson Financial expected a loss of 5 cents a share.
The name-your-own-price Internet retailer said sales were $269.7 million, up 18 percent sequentially. For the quarter, the Norwalk, Conn. company lost $6.2 million on a pro forma basis.
Customer count jumped by 891,490 to nearly 10 million total.
Priceline also reaffirmed earlier projections for the second quarter with revenue expected to rise 10 percent to 15 percent.
Priceline shares closed the regular session at $6.59. Shares hadn't touched that level since November 2000.
KPMG Consulting
Newly public KPMG Consulting (KCIN: news, msgs, alerts) reported third-quarter operating net income of $42.1 million, or earnings of 34 cents a share, compared with $20.9 million, or 7 cents a share, during the previous quarter. Operating net income excludes one-time nonoperating items, like equity losses.
Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial expected operating earnings of 25 cents a share.
In evening trading, shares rose 7.4 percent to $17.10, but were still below their $18 IPO price.
Cash operating earnings, which exclude goodwill and asset amortization, were 37 cents a share, compared with 11 cents a share during the previous quarter. The actual loss was $101.7 million, or 83 cents a share, compared with a loss of $53.4 million, or 70 cents a share, during the previous quarter.
Revenue was $750.9 million, compared with $702.6 million during the previous quarter.
Shares of KPMG Consulting, closed up 31 cents, or 2 percent, at $15.92.
Register.com
Shares of Register.com (RCOM: news, msgs, alerts) rose in evening trading as the company reported first-quarter numbers that beat expectations as revenue surged nearly 150 percent.
Register.com, which provides domain name registration and other Internet services, reported net income of $2.0 million, or 4 cents per share. In the year-earlier comparable quarter, the company posted a net loss of $991,000, or 4 cents per share.
Analysts expected Register to earn 1 cent per share and report revenue of $27.7 million, according to First Call.
Net revenue was $30.7 million, compared with $12.4 million for the comparable year-ago period.
Shares finished Nasdaq trading at $7.58, up 4.7 percent. On Island, shares moved at $8.30.
DSL.net
Shares of DSL.net (DSLN: news, msgs, alerts) headed south after the company reported a wider-than-expected first-quarter loss and said it was seeking additional funding.
DSL.net said its net loss was $26.6 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with a loss of $18.3 million, or 33 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
The company was expected to post a loss of 41 cents on average, according to the three analysts surveyed by First Call.
The New Haven, Conn.-based company said it expects an EBITDA loss ranging from $15.7 million to $16.7 million in the second quarter, and an EBITDA loss ranging from $55 million to $60 million for the year.
Revenue is expected to fall between $10 million to $10.5 million in the second quarter, and $45 million to $50 million for the year.
Shares closed up 23 cents, or 17 percent, to $1.58. On Island, shares slid 23 cents, or nearly 15 percent, to $1.35.
CNet
CNet Networks reported a wider-than-expected loss for the first quarter, missing analysts' estimate by 3 cents.
The provider of information and commerce services to the technology industry (CNET: news, msgs, alerts) also warned that it would not meet Wall Street's expectation for the rest of the year.
For the first quarter, CNET reported a loss, before non-cash and one-time items, of $18.2 million or 13 cents a share. That compares with a profit of $2.5 million, or 2 cents. Revenue dropped to $75.2 million from $92.8 million last year.
For the second quarter, CNET expects to report a loss of between 14 cents to 20 cents, compared with analysts' estimate of a 6-cent loss. In the third quarter, CNET sees a loss of 11 cents to 17 cents, sharply larger than Wall Street's 3-cent loss forecast. The fourth quarter should yield a loss of 4 cents to 12 cents, CNET said, rounding out the fiscal year with a 40- to 59-cent loss.
Wall Street analysts had expected a 2-cent profit for the last quarter and a 19-cent profit for the full year.
Shares of CNET, which were up 3.8 percent in the regular session, dropped by nearly 14 percent to $11 on Island.
Loudcloud
Loudcloud, a provider of Internet infrastructure services, said late Tuesday that it would reduce its staff to 507 by cutting 19 percent of its staff, or 122 employees, in an effort to achieve break-even cash flow with existing available financial resources.
Loudcloud (LDCL: news, msgs, alerts) also said it would control discretionary spending.
Shares of Loudcloud closed at $6.43, up 53 cents, or 9 percent, ahead of the announcement. The stock fell 3 cents to trade at $6.40 in after-hours dealings.
Nicole Maestri is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com
More AFTER HOURS
•Quarterly reports boost tech shares 6:46pm ET 04/30/01
•Investors sweet on fiber optics 6:53pm ET 04/27/01
•Quarterly results buffet tech stocks 6:31pm ET 04/26/01
•Qualcomm, New Focus down after hours 8:33pm ET 04/25/01
•Buyers arrive in evening trading 7:14pm ET 04/24/01
Latest Industry News
•National Inquirer to take gossip global 5:59pm ET 05/01/01
•Impath reiterates, Gadzoox reports 5:39pm ET 05/01/01
•Starbucks and Compaq team up 4:58pm ET 05/01/01
•Retailers shake off the blahs 4:32pm ET 05/01/01
•Procter & Gamble turn around still needs work 4:29pm ET 05/01/01 |
