2 of 5 "Top" analysts cover DRIV in The Wall Street Transcript ($175)
Two of the following five "top" internet analysts are noted for covering DRIV. Report costs $175, anybody know how credible they are, if its worth the money? I got this notice through my DLJ news service tonight at 5:20 p.m.
Cover DRIV:
Scott Ehrens, Managing Director at Bear, Stearns & Co.
Shaun Anrikopoulos, Internet Industry analyst at BT Alex.
Business Wire
FIVE TOP ANALYSTS REVIEW INTERNET SECTOR IN
THE WALL STREET TRANSCRIPT
BUSINESS/TECHNOLOGY EDITORS NEW
YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NOVEMBER 13, 1998--FIVE
LEADING RESEARCH ANALYSTS DISCUSSED THE
DIFFERENT
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--November 13, 1998--Five leading
research analysts discussed the different sectors of the Internet
sector with The Wall Street Transcript in its most recent edition.
This special 29-page focus offers a broad and expert review of the
sector for investors:
1) Scott Ehrens, Managing Director at Bear, Stearns & Co.,
reviews the spectrum of Internet/New Media companies. "Over the last
year," he says, "e-commerce has actually been the biggest bucket from
which they can derive revenue." He discusses how investors can
evaluate Internet companies, and the likely impact of a recession on
Internet advertising. On the international growth of the major
Internet players, he says "Every internet company from the day of
inception is available globally. It's the nature of the business and
it's fascinating, and that's why I also think that the largest
companies grow fastest, because the more people you have contact with
globally, the more people you have talking about you, the better your
word of mouth, the bigger your brand gets and the more people you have
reaching out to you."
Companies he reviews are Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN.O), At Home
(Nasdaq:ATHM.O), Digital River (Nasdaq:DRIV.O), Excite (Nasdaq:XCIT.O),
Infoseek (Nasdaq:SEEK.O), Lycos (Nasdaq:LCOS.O), Yahoo (Nasdaq:YHOO.O).
2) Shaun Anrikopoulos, Internet Industry analyst at BT Alex.
Brown, offers an overview of Investing in the Internet. He breaks the
sector into three groups - consumer media, retailers and the
business-to-business category. He reviews companies in the three
sectors, and discusses Internet security, transferability of physical
world businesses to the Internet, and valuation methodologies. He
tells investors: "the general rules of thumb are to look for
defensible businesses that have solid management teams, and in many
cases have recurring revenue streams. We tend to like businesses that
require little if any human intervention in order to service their
customers."
He notes that institutional investors "are looking for real
earnings, they're looking for real cash flow, and there are very few
companies that are profitable today on a sustainable basis, and there
are certainly very few that are cash-flow positive. The companies that
are cash flow positive are delivering premium valuations." With regard
to Internet IPOs, he says that "the market is not being receptive to
companies that are losing money...the gold rush days may be over,
where no matter how much money an Internet company was losing, it
could still go public."
Companies he reviews include Amazon , America Online (NYSE:AOL.N),
At Home, Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS.N), Cyberian Outpost (Nasdaq:COOL.O),
Digital River, DoubleClick (Nasdaq:DCLK), eBay(Nasdaq:EBAY), Gemstar
International (Nasdaq:GMSTF), Infoseek, Lycos, NewsEdge (Nasdaq:NEWZ),
Yahoo.
3) Marc Usem, an independent consultant in Internet technology
investing, argues that the one overriding factor linking all aspects
of the Internet sector - from infrastructure through retailing and
media - is rapid growth. He says, "Growth is coming from new PC sales
and penetration of the existing PC installed base, part of which is
being driven by people wanting to get online. End-user demand from
corporations that are deploying Internet technologies is another
driver, as most office workers have, or soon will have, Internet
access."
He then talks at length about the factors driving the different
subsectors. Of Internet technology, he says, "you have this standard
environment now, where everything must be open and inter-operate. The
ability to compete moves away from proprietary technology to having a
better technology feature set, better customer support, being more
innovative in developing new technology standards and executing
flawlessly. I believe the technology sector is one of the most
difficult in which to compete."
Companies he discusses include Amazon, America Online, At Home,
eBay, iMall (Nasdaq:IMAL), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), Netscape
(Nasdaq:NSCP), Onsale (Nasdaq:ONSL), Peapod (Nasdaq:PPOD), Roadrunner
(OTC BB::RRVG), Yahoo.
4) Ullas Naik, Senior Vice President and Analyst in the
Technology Research Group at FAC-Equities/First Albany, covers
"e-business services" and he favors companies which "enable and
optimize the commerce process for businesses by using technology as an
enable" A major driver of this sector, he says, is "the fact that
companies employing electronic commerce either to optimize
inter-company interaction or to sell goods online are seeing very
significant returns on investment as well as strong revenue growth
numbers due to their e-commerce projects."
In offering recommendations, he says, "I'd say if I were to pick
three, META Group (Nasdaq:METG), Forrester (Nasdaq:FORR), and USWeb
(Nasdaq:USWB) are the ones I would pick right now." Other companies he
discusses are CMG Information Services (Nasdaq:CMGI), Harbinger
(Nasdaq:HRBC), Gartner Group (NYSE:IT), QuickResponse Services
(Nasdaq:QRSI), Sterling Commerce (NYSE:SE).
5) Shawn Severson, Vice President-Equity Research at EVEREN
Securities, talks about Infrastructure and Building Block companies.
Many investors are unaware that there are many companies in the
materials, PCB (printed circuit board), and EMS (electronic
manufacturing services) industries that have leverage to the Internet
as suppliers to the major hardware companies. These companies, he
claims, are "good lead indicators of the electronics industry...as
indicators of where the market is going before it shows up in the
results of companies like Hewlett-Packard or IBM."
Asked for stocks he is recommending, he says, "I like a number of
the premier companies in the industry, including Plexus (Nasdaq:PLXS),
Jabil (NYSE:JBL), Sanmina (Nasdaq:SANM), Solectron (NYSE:SLR), and The
DII Group (Nasdaq:DIIG). I would suggest Hadco (Nasdaq:HDCO) in the
PCB sector and I would suggest Rogers Corporation (Amex:ROG) on the
materials side." He does admit, though, these stocks "tend to carry a
higher level of operating leverage than large OEMs, which can be good
or bad depending on which side of the cycle you're sitting on."
For a copy of this complete issue, which also contains interviews
on other topics with analysts, money managers and CEOs, call (212) 952
7433 or use the web at secure.addy.com.
There is a $175 charge for the issue. The Wall Street Transcript does
not endorse the views of any interviewee nor does it make stock
recommendations.
The Wall Street Transcript is a premier weekly investment
publication serving serious long-term investors for over 35 years. The
Transcript publishes industry roundtables and interviews with Wall
Street analysts, money managers and company CEOs, and is read by top
money managers, brokers and individual investors. For subscriptions
information call (800) 246 7673.
The Wall Street Transcript twst.com
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CONTACT: The Wall Street Transcript, New York
800/246-7673
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