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Strategies & Market Trends : Market Gems:Stocks w/Strong Earnings and High Tech. Rank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jenna who wrote (33365)	4/13/1999 4:17:00 PM
From: kendall harmon	Respond to of 120523

SVRN-here is news from Bloomberg Sovereign Bancorp Said to Plan Internet Offerings (Update1) Sovereign Bancorp Said to Plan Internet Offerings (Update1) (Adds details about the bank, comments from analyst Harting, updates stock.) Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Sovereign Bancorp Inc., the third-largest banking company based in Pennsylvania, plans to offer Internet banking in the second half of this year, analysts said. The Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based thrift plans to sell banking products including credit cards, home equity loans, checking, and small business loans that are tailored to specific groups, such as university alumni, across the country, analysts said. ''They're saying we can customize via the Internet affinity- targeted banking products,'' said Edward Najarian, a bank analyst at First Union Capital Markets Corp. Shares of Internet-related banks have been surging in the past few days, as investors bet that more customers will want to do their banking online, rather than through conventional branches. Shares of Net.B@nk Inc., the first profitable Internet bank in the U.S., have surged from 76 to 218 since April 1. Najarian, who doesn't plan to change his earnings estimates for Sovereign in the near term, said the announcement of Internet banking might have a positive effect on the shares. ''Because it's an Internet-related business, it's likely a positive catalyst for the stock,'' Najarian said. ''It's something for people to talk about and get hopeful that, longer term, it will be profitable.'' Sovereign officials declined to comment. The company's shares rose 1 to 16 15/16 in afternoon trading of more than 18.7 million shares, its heaviest trading day ever and more than 16 times the average daily volume for the last six months. Analysts said Sovereign plans to call the site Americaswebbank.com, and will structure it as a separate stand- alone unit of Sovereign. ''Their feeling is that a lot of specialty finance companies have used affinity marketing for one product, but no one has wrapped all of it into one,'' said Bruce Harting, a bank analyst at Lehman Brothers Inc. Sovereign, which has $23.4 billion in assets, said yesterday that first-quarter earnings would meet analysts' estimates, boosted by loan growth and lower deposit costs. It last week announced a plan to buy back 10 percent of its outstanding shares. Sovereign shares have fallen 21 percent in the last 52 weeks.