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Technology Stocks : SIEB Siebert Financial Brokerage -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marie fouchia who wrote (28)	4/7/1998 9:32:00 PM
From: m-top	Respond to of 284

The trick here is in determining when the balance of shorts has shifted from public to professional. As long as the balance is public, this dog will continue to rise. When the tide turns to the market makers as net short, this dog is done. Right now, they own the shorts. It could be over tomorrow, or they could float it until friday only to let Alan Ableson smash it this weekend. Regardless, I suspect it will be over and done with in the next few days. Still long, with an eye to a very small exit. John

To: marie fouchia who wrote (28)	4/7/1998 10:45:00 PM
From: Anthony Marchese	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 284

SIEB is basically in the discount brokerage and municipal bond business. Latest 10-K reveals they are having a tough time in the discount brokerage end of the business and are making decent money in the municipal business. Book value is 43 cents per share so that at current levels the stock is trading at about 38 times book. It has earnings of 12.5 cents per share last year and is now trading in excess of 133 times trailing twelve month earnings. Sales and earnings have been flat the last several years. E-trade, the leader in this business, trades at about 4 times book and about 20 times forward earnings. Montogomery Securities, a real powerhouse, was recently bought for 5 times book value. Merrill Lynch trades at about 4 times book value. What does that tell you about the valuation of SIEB?