Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Intuit -- What's Its Future? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ceebs Hartmann who wrote (890)	12/22/1997 1:09:00 PM
From: TLindt	Respond to of 1546

Well if read the last Q correctly...mgt stated that the migration to the net was a 3 year program....of which they were one year into..and ahead of targets....2 years to go for sure. Management is a disaster.....hindsight? Trying to charge Quicken Users & Banks to connect to eachother...was the plan....internet screwed that up.....made the connection....cut Intuit off at the pass. However the Financial end of the net is??????????acording to Management. Quickening Pace -3-: Intuit Stock Could Be A Bargain Cook argues that the potential for selling financial goods through the Internet is far greater than for any physical product. "In most kinds of commerce, the Web degrades the experience. If you're shopping for a car, it's nice to sit in it, smell the leather, and drive the thing. If you buy shoes, you want to try them on. Finance is different. The goods have no atoms, you can't hold them in your hands. That makes financial goods ideal things to sell on the Web." On that score, Morgan Stanley's savvy Internet analyst, Mary Meeker, agrees, rating "insurance/financial services" as offering the highest growth potential among all Internet businesses. And that potential may indeed be huge. While the worldwide personal computer market has about $200 billion in annual sales, the worldwide software market runs $100 billion and the worldwide book market stands at $85 billion. By contrast, the U.S. financial-services market is, according to Cook, somewhere north of $1 trillion a year. Says he, "We are talking about a monster market without peer." Though the excitement among those in the know at Intuit clearly focuses on the Internet, it would be a mistake to write off either Intuit's software operations or Quicken itself as history. To be sure, in software, Quicken is now faced with a mature, slower-growing market, but the newest versions of Quicken allow users to download all their savings- and checking-account data from their banks over the Web, and in certain cases they can also download their credit-card statements. The program's 10 million users remain fiercely loyal, with many buying every upgrade and regularly linking into the Quicken Web site. Still, recognizing that the long-term trend in Quicken sales is flat-to-down, Cook and Intuit Chief Executive Bill Campbell say they are are managing that side of the company for bottom-line profit, aiming to boost margins at the expense of further market-share gains. One practical manifestation of this was the decision last summer to lay off 10% of the company's staff. "The personal-finance side had been staffed for growth at a time when we realized we were no longer growing like we used to," says Cook. "Also, as we shifted efforts toward the Internet, certain staffing functions, like software technical support, became less important. We have gone from three tech-support centers to two." The combination of slowing Quicken opportunities and still untapped Internet potential makes Intuit's stock difficult to evaluate. Obviously, the company's history provides few if any clues to the future. At the same time, while the loyalty of Quicken users and the high recognition of the Quicken name must help in gaining Internet business, no one can really predict when, where and to what degree it will all pay off. By conventional yardsticks, Intuit stock is not overpriced. The company has virtually no debt, and it has cash in hand of close to $10 a share. Stripping that out of the equation leaves a pro forma stock price of 24 5/16 (the market price of 34 5/16 less the cash). That is hardly rich, given that street analysts look for earnings to hit $41 million, or 88 cents a share, in the fiscal year ending next July and then advance more than 20% the following year to $51 million, or $1.09 a share. If Intuit's Internet bet pays off, the stock could be a bargain at current prices -- especially if its success and its Quicken brand name one day attract the acquisitive eye of a financial giant like Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab or American Express. DOW JONES NEWS 12-06-97 08:12 AM "Dow Jones News Service" "Copyright(c) 1997, Dow Jones & Company, Inc."

To: Ceebs Hartmann who wrote (890)	12/22/1997 1:24:00 PM
From: TLindt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1546

And I guess that sums up why I'm bullish...at my cost net of the cash, this article is talking about, I'm in under $12. I'll take a $12 Stock with $1 projected earning 2 years out....and did. It's like doc says, it's timing.....

To: Ceebs Hartmann who wrote (890)	12/23/1997 9:46:00 AM
From: chirodoc	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1546

from yahoo internet The rest of the commerce sector bombed--the group is down 37%. We think more than anything this may indicate a shift from early pioneers to established players taking over the game. With IBM (NYSE:IBM - news) , Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU - news) , Hewlett-Packard (NASDAQ:HWP - news) , Dell (NASDAQ:DELL - news) , Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS - news) and more moving into the e-business/commerce realm our hunch is that investors may follow.

To: Ceebs Hartmann who wrote (890)	12/23/1997 1:22:00 PM
From: TLindt	Respond to of 1546

Off Topic Ceebs....I know you like it both ways....what do you think about this one? Excite / Lycos......going long Excite, and Shorting Lycos at these levels.....it seems that they are at about maximum spread $11.50...and they have crossed in price at $33 shortly after last Qs earnings. Just wondering?

To: Ceebs Hartmann who wrote (890)	12/29/1997 9:08:00 AM
From: chirodoc	Respond to of 1546

more bullishness on internet sales------Sunday December 28 3:19 PM PLUGGED IN: Shopping 'Till You Drop On Internet By Russell Blinch TORONTO (Reuters) - Attention shoppers: the store is not closing anytime soon and it likely expand by the second. Welcome to the world of online shopping, the biggest shopping mall ever, and more popular than most had previously imagined. Shopping 'till your fingers dropped in cyberspace became firmly entrenched in 1997, especially in the Christmas buying period that ended last Thursday. World Wide Web sites, big and small, reported heavy buying traffic. Just ask Eric Kassian, managing director of FabFour SuperStore (www.fab4store.com), which from its base in Calgary, Alberta, helps customers around the world over stock up on Beatles' memorabilia. "It has been a marvelous adventure," said Kassian. "We have seen wonderful sales increases since we launched in June (1997)," he said. Kassian said sales jumped 40 percent in September before rising more than 100 percent in October and in November. People didn't seem to be worried about security or other issues that once stalled online shopping while spending an average of $80 per visit. Kassian said one person went away with a $1,500 vintage guitar. America Online, with 10 million subscribers, reported that just before the Christmas holiday sales had doubled over the same two weeks in December of 1996. "The is the breakthrough holiday season in a number of respects to AOL's retail sales as both our partners and our members become more comfortable and adept in getting the most out of electronic commerce," said AOL President Bob Pittman in a statement. It was only a few months ago that Dell Computer Corp. wowed us with the statement it was selling more than $1 million of computers a day from its Web site. But in December, Chairman Michael Dell said his direct PC sales company was selling more than $3 million worth of products a day, or about $1 billion a year through its site on the World Wide Web. Internet research firms are estimating that online sales are now expected to tally between $1 billion and $3 billion for 1997, or substantially higher than the $600 million estimated for 1996. Analysts were previously much more cautious about the growth of online sales because of the belief that consumers were not comfortable with cyber shopping, including being nervous about lurking hackers who might steal their credit card numbers. But those fears seems to have disappeared faster than a tin of shortbread cookies at holiday time. Industry has doubtless done a marvelous job easing those fears with many a press release on how secure their sites are now because they are employing various kinds of security. People don't necessarily understand all the talk of encryption and secure standards but they have obviously decided to put their faith in the system after gingerly plunking their credit cards down on the Net. They quickly realized a bogey man didn't come and get them and instead discovered how convenient shopping online can be. It's not unlike giving your credit card to a waiter, using a bank machine or ordering with a credit card over the phone -- sooner or later it all comes down to trust with the institution that you are dealing with. Despite the success, there is an intriguing question to be asked: is online shopping generating new retail sale dollars or is it simply taking revenue from other businesses who have yet to establish an online presence? --For ideas or comments on the weekly Plugged In column contact: russell.blinch("at" sign) reuters.com.