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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: djane who wrote (53753)	9/5/1998 8:51:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

Tech Highlights with John Leo of the Northern Technology Fund [ASND reference] techstocks.com Sep 03, 1998 John Leo of the Northern Technology Fund provides the following stock ideas in an interview with Mark Johnson. Below is the write up. John Leo and his team at the Northern Technology Fund have done an incredible job managing their funds portfolio. As of August 27th, the fund has returned 21% to shareholders despite the recent weakness in the technology sector. He mentions that we are in the "teeth of a tough correction right now" and that it is being driven by an unusual set of circumstances which include global events and not by rising inflation and interest rates. John has overweighed the fund in the communications and software sector because he feels that those areas offer the best growth potential when looking towards the future. In the communications sector, he favors the market leaders such as Cisco (CSCO 91 5/8) and Lucent Technology (LU 79 1/4) and they comprise bigger positions in the fund. John also likes and has a sizable position in Ascend Communications (ASND 37 7/8). A smaller company he favors is Uniphase (UNPH 43). They are the maker and marketer of laser-based equipment and products that expand the data carrying capability of networks. Their customers include Ciena and Lucent. As for the software stocks that he is bullish on, Microsoft (MSFT 100 1/2) remains an important holding within the fund, despite their current legal entanglements. Electronic Arts (ERTS 43 1/8) is the maker of interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms and makes up a sizable position in the fund. J.D. Edwards & Company (JDEC 43) is a provider of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solutions. "I like the area in which they operate in a lot," says John, "They just reported an outstanding quarter and are experiencing tremendous growth." He feels that there should be a reasonable commitment to the Internet space Another software company he is bullish on is Citrix Systems (CTXS 63 3/4). They provide thin client software that allows mainframe systems to connect users throughout an enterprise system providing a PC like field to desktop terminals. "This allows low-cost desktop terminals to act as if they were high priced machines," says John. John notes that many Internet stocks are hard to value in a traditional sense because many of them have relatively low revenues and earnings. On the positive side, they are very much domestically focused companies and not exposed to Asia and the emerging markets. "They are showing extremely rapid growth in terms of top line growth." He feels that there should be a reasonable commitment to the Internet space and America Online (AOL 88) and Yahoo! (YHOO 77 3/4) are among the top 10 holdings in the fund. John has been underweighted in the semiconductor, computer hardware and capital equipment area and is still cautious in those areas. He adds that there have been signs of strength in the PC sector and "this is an important factor for the technology sector as a whole." The PC area could show signs of strength from a seasonal standpoint because of the back-to-school and holiday season. As for technology stocks, John is not surprised that there has been a correction in the market because from a macro point of view "growth rates have been slowing down over the last few quarters... not just in technology but through the entire economy." One of the reasons why Northern created this fund was because technology is an important sector for growth looking out longer term. "Growth oriented investors will continue to focus on the technology area as a fertile area of new growth opportunities and this encourages us to kick tires and look for new opportunities," says John. Next Page