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Technology Stocks : Winstar Comm. (WCII) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jason Cogan who wrote (6191)	5/18/1998 9:50:00 AM
From: NoMoreRBOC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12468

Jason: First, I was only jesting with respect to suggesting that Ms. Comfort edited the Barrons article to delete references to WCII. She is a WCII bear, she has presented her thought out case and likely will continue to do so until WCII can begin to generate the revenues per employee ratio that she has hung her hat on. Second, I agree that analyst recommendations must be regarded with a grain of salt and that anyone relying on analyst recommendations must do a ton of their own due diligence before taking the plunge in a stock. I also am fully aware of the business of the Street and how the pressure to gain and/or maintain investment banking business creates pressure on an investment bank's analysts to come up with bullish recommendations on companies. However, buy recommendations are sometimes given just because an analyst feels that their is great opportunity in the stock. Many of the recommendations given for WCII are from investment banks that have not done any business with WCII and likely never will. You ask why Ms. Comfort would be bearish on WCII given the overall pressure to be bullish on the stock. Well, first I am not sure where the pressure to be bullish on the stock is coming from exactly. Maybe you could explain. Do you simply mean, pressure to follow the herd? Second, I think Ms. Comfort is likely bearish on the stock because she is truly bearish base on her set of metrics that she uses to evaluate CLECs. However, when talking about vested interests and pressure one must also consider that her investment bank boss -- Morgan Stanley -- lost WCII's investment banking business or decided it didn't want it anymore for whatever reason. Also, one must consider that her investment banking boss also has clients that are holding WinStar bonds that are automatically convertible by WinStar into common stock at a little more than $20+ if the stock price is a little north of 40 for a certain number of days. Those holders are doing very nicely sitting tight with their bonds. They can always convert their evergrowing principal and interest into common stock down the road. It was at or above that trigger price for most of the required number of days a month or so ago when Ms. Comfort came out with her first downgrade. So, if we are talking the "business" of the Street, lets consider all the possible games that could be being played and all the interests. I'm not talking conspiracy theory, just looking at all sides. Thanks NMR