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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Techlad who wrote (1729)	1/6/1999 5:42:00 PM
From: BomboochaBoy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 41369

>> I'm beginning to get a little frustrated. ... AOL volume only 15m << And average volume is 16 million, so what's your point, Techlad? If you want to invest in a superbly-run company that has one foot on the forefront of the next generation of one-on-one global communication and the other foot mired in rapidly increasing revenues and earnings, you're in the right stock. If you want to put your money in companies that have underwhelming management, zero profits, and rely on souped-up press releases to jack up their stock temporarily...you're in the wrong place. Or you can put your money in a zero-growth, overweight, fundamentally correct large-cap company that has maxed out its potential. And if all else fails, please read this story. It's been posted here before, but I dug it up just for you, Lad. ragingbull.com A little snippet for you. Many AOL services cost almost nothing to provide -- especially in its faster-growing (but smaller) advertising and e-commerce segment. It costs almost the same amount to provide Web content to 15 million people as to 8 million -- and neither amount is much. AOL's real spending is on providing connectivity, itself an excellent business, and on marketing. And AOL is beginning to prove the Internet-craze premise that revenue growth will outstrip marketing spending and send margins through the roof. In AOL's first quarter (ending September), operating margins jumped to a record 13.1% of sales -- from 5.0% during last year's corresponding quarter, a 160% plus gain on a much bigger revenue base. Marketing expenses plummeted to 12.2 % of revenues from 18.7%. That's more than 50 percent. And in percentage terms, these margin figures are just beginning to heat up. If you want to play with the pseudo companies, go for it. Believe me, there is no substitute for real companies with real earnings and real growth. You'll accept that fact sooner or later. Regards, Paul