 |
 | |
 |  |
| We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level. |
The Internet Financial Connection, December 18, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------- Presented by Mark Johnson, Editor of the IFC siliconinvestor.com -------------------------------------------------------------- To Subscribe: Send a blank email to <mailto:ifc-subscribe@topica.com> Please tell a friend about this newsletter :) -------------------------------------------------------------- !!! ATTENTION INVESTORS !!! Try Investor's Business Daily FREE for two weeks. Investor's Business Daily -- a proven way to get the best stock, options, and commodities information you need, every business day. Click on the link below ibd.infostreet.com to begin receiving Investor's Business Daily. There is no commitment and you will enjoy two FREE weeks of Investor's Business Daily delivered to you every business day. "One of the best sources of financial information available!" Mark Johnson Editor of the Internet Financial Connection. ibd.infostreet.com -------------------------------------------------------------- This newsletter can be viewed at siliconinvestor.com In This Issue: 1. Top fund manager tells why tech stocks have more upside 2. Ibis Technology 3. Dixons Group 4. ICON Technology Fund 5. Book Review: How to Become the "Millionaire Next Door" 6. Interesting Articles on the Internet by Joe Dancy 7. Disclaimer ---------------------------------------------------------- 1. Top fund manager tells why tech stocks have more upside siliconinvestor.com Mark Johnson, Editor of the Internet Financial Connection, provides the following interview with Amy Selner of Berger Mid-Cap Growth Fund bergerfunds.com. Below is the write-up. Amy Selner is the portfolio manager of the Berger Mid-Cap Growth Fund and manager of the Berger Small-Cap Growth Fund, up 121 percent and 82 percent respectively. She uses a rigorous research and analytical investment style, and likes to invest in companies that have the leading market share in an emerging industry. The companies that she invests in usually have a proprietary technology product or service that creates high barriers to entry. Amy is an ex-technology analyst and focuses on the technology sector because of the high growth prospects of the industry. About 55 percent of both of her funds assets are invested in the technology area. "The weighting in the tech sector is high because it is the sector with the best growth characteristics in the market today." Selner uses a thorough "due diligence" process before investing in a company. "Our investment process includes due diligence with the company, their customers and their suppliers," she says. "We're trying to gain an understanding of the sustainability of growth drivers in a particular company we would like to know more about." Other important factors in a company include: the competitive landscape, experience level of the management, and sustainability of the model to continue to fund the company's growth. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite is up over 60 percent year to date. Amy believes the technolgy rally will continue for two reasons. First, on a short-term basis, money flowing into money market funds has increased dramatically over the last few months. In October, money market funds pulled in $37 billion in cash and added close to $40 billion in November. "The amount of money going into equities is half of that. This means that nearly $2 is going into cash funds for every one dollar going into equities. Once this Y2K cloud is gone, I think that money will be put to work," she explains. Secondly, the fundamentals for the tech sector are "just fantastic." She compares tech firms to the capital goods stocks of 50 years ago that built the U.S. industrial economy. "The technology stocks are building out the infrastructure for the Internet and the information economy. This is a paradigm shift and a long-term secular play... Sure, tech stocks may be volatile in the short term, but over the long term, have a long way to climb." A few tech names Selner favors include: Cree Research (CREE 68 5/8), Agile Software (AGIL 176), Commerce One (CMRC 419), Ariba (ARBA 237 1/2) and PRI Automation (PRIA 48 3/8). Cree Research makes silicon carbide-based semiconductor devices for high-speed and mobile communications. The demand for bandwidth has accelerated and the need for high speed communications equipment is growing. Cree's semiconductors will be used in a variety of devices in the wireless and handset industry, where alternative silicon approaches are needed. Cree produces 90 percent of the commercially available silicon carbide wafer supply. Amy is impressed with Cree's 40-percent-plus revenue growth rate and the company is one of her fund's core holdings. Selner notes that the Internet is revolutionizing business transactions and relationships. "It is important for OEMs and suppliers to closely coordinate the production and assembly of thousands of individual parts that may make up one product." One company she likes that will bring businesses closer together is Agile Software. It is a company that provides one platform that helps to quickly communicate design changes, defect information, product information and customer preferences into the supply chain. "The end result is a faster time to market and a more efficient production process." Agile's customers include: General Electric, Lucent Technology and Texas Instruments. Commerce One and Ariba are in the business-to-business (B-to-B) ecommerce software area. She adds that companies in the B-to-B ecommerce area are trying to create a Network Effect. "Each new buyer, suppler or partner delivers more value to every other person that's within the ecommerce circle. It's a powerful equation for leveraging tremendous upside in a massive market. This Network Effect is a buzzword that you're going to hear from a number companies. Commerce One has the ambition to create a global trading network powered by its MarketSite platform." It has secured partners that include: British Telecom, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone and General Motors. PRI Automation makes factory-automated systems that automate the semiconductor manufacturing process. Amy cites that fundamentals within the semiconductor area are very good. "Estimates indicate that next year will be a big year for capacity expansion. PRI has tremendous upside from here, along with a rising margin situation." In the Internet services space, Selner is high on Diamond Technology (DTPI 84 1/8). It provides digital strategy consulting for businesses. "As companies embrace the Intenet, they need to outsource a lot of this consulting and strategy work to help them move quickly. Time to market is of the essence and people do not want to get left behind. Digital strategy and consulting has been a very robust area." One area Amy is cautious on is the financial area. She does not view that area as a core growth area and is hesitant to invest in that space. Like 1999, Amy believes that 2000 and 2001 will be a stock-pickers market. She is confident that during the next few years, aggressive growth mutual funds will continue to outperform the market. "If you are in an aggressive growth fund, you should do quite well!" ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Ibis Technology siliconinvestor.com Jesse Soto, technology analyst for Highmark Small Cap Mutual Fund highmark-funds.com, provides the following stock idea on Ibis Technology (IBIS 51). Below is the write-up. Ibis Technology is a semiconductor equipment and wafer manufacturer. They are not what you would call a traditional silicon wafer manufacturer. Ibis has pioneered a new technology known as SIMOX (which stands for separation by implantation of oxygen). Essentially this process injects a layer of oxygen into a silicon wafer, which is then heated. The result is an insulating layer buried deep in the wafer. This end product, known as SOI (Silicon On Insulator), serves as a conductive layer that lowers power consumption and increases speed. Jesse Soto, technology analyst for the Highmark Small Cap Mutual Fund explains that Ibis' technology essentially increases the speed in a typical chip around 30 percent. "Power consumption can be reduced up to 80 percent, which is enormous!" says Jesse. SOI technology enables chip manufacturers to leapfrog a generation, 18 to 24 months in terms of the semiconductor life cycle... It is a huge advancement!" He adds that as semiconductors become smaller there are physical limitations as to what Moore's Law will allow. "This is where SOI technology comes in. This technology allows for advancements that were previously unavailable." Ibis sports an impressive list of clients that includes: IBM, Mitsubishi, Motorola and AMD, among others. Most visible is IBM, which has been a big backer of Ibis' technology. It is a major customer for Ibis wafers, and has also purchased several machines to bring the manufacturing process inside IBM fabs. In fact, IBM has been a vocal supporter of SOI for some time, and may begin shipping products in volume as early as next year, the first of which probably will be the Apple PowerPC notebook processor. It will be followed shortly by other high-end IBM processors, including those used in business servers, routers and mainframes. "In fact, by late next year, all of IBM's microprocessors could incorporate SOI technology." Soto notes that IBM could be the tip of the iceberg because many other industry heavyweights are aggressively looking into Ibis' technology. Many recent announcements have suggested a broader acceptance of SOI technology. Mitsubishi for instance, recently announced that it has licensed Ibis wafer manufacturing technology and will ship an already-owned Ibis machine from Ibis' headquarters, back to Japan. This is a clear prelude to Mitsubishi manufacturing SOI-based wafers in volume. Mitsubishi will receive the machine, learn how to manufacture the SOI wafers and then ramp up production by ordering other Ibis machines. This is a strong endorsement of Ibis technology, considering that Mitsubishi is the fifth-largest wafer manufacturer in the world. Additionally, Samsung, which has been evaluating Ibis' SOI technology, has announced that it will continue to manufacture the Alpha chip for Compaq computers. This business was won with the caveat that Compaq and Samsung will invest $500 million in advancing the technology for the Alpha chip, which will include SOI. Other high-profile announcements will most likely come from Motorola and AMD. The former has been evaluating Ibis technology for some time. Motorola is probably not too far from unveiling SOI-based products ideally suited for the mobile handset market, according to Soto. AMD, which incidentally has an R&D agreement with Motorola, will probably incorporate SOI into its next-generation K8 chip. "If they can't get an advantage over Intel on the manufacturing side, they'll do it on the process side." Also on the horizon is a privately owned company known as Bookham technology. Already, this company (which is well known on Wall Street) accounts for 15 percent of the total demand for Ibis wafers. Bookham is in a hot space since it addresses the fiber-optic transmission market, which is an area that is "absolutely on fire right now." Jesse mentions that the uses of Ibis' technology are enormous. "Ibis' technology is ideally suited for Internet and wireless products, the technology reduces power consumption and increases performance, both incredibly important characteristics for next-generation technologies. On top of all this potential in Ibis' end markets, the company is relatively unknown, it has very little Wall Street coverage and a small following of retail investors, even though the stock is up over 300 percent year-to-date. That will change once new product introductions are announced, and the Street starts to believe that the adoption of SOI as an enabling technology has arrived." Analysts estimate that Ibis will earn 24 cents in 2000 and 80 cents in 2001. Jesse views those estimates as conservative and thinks the stock has a long way to go. There is a thread that discusses IBIS on SI. Subject 5459 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Dixons Group siliconinvestor.com Thomas Melly of Simms Capital Management, simmscapital.com, provided the following stock idea on Dixons Group (DXNGY 62 7/8). Below is the write-up. Over the last year, Tom Melly of Simms Capital Management has provided a couple of fantastic stock selections. In December of 1998, he selected Nokia at $50, it now trades at well over $150 per share. More recently, last May he selected WPP Group at $43 1/2. It now trades at $76. Tom's investment process entails a portfolio of stocks from all over the world. His international stock portfolio is up over 35 percent year-to-date, and he mentions that there is a growing trend to buy overseas equities. Currently, one of Tom's favorite selections is Dixons Group. It is primarily an international retailing group based in the UK. The company mainly sells high-tech electronics, communications equipment and computer products and is similar to Tandy Corp's RadioShack. "Dixon's has solid fundamentals, including a positive cycle for consumer electronics, which is very favorable, "says Melly. Tom notes that Dixon's has a "great Internet kicker." It owns 80 percent of Freeserve, the largest Internet service provider in the UK and offers free Internet access. The market capitalization of Freeserve is over $7 billion. "They have about one third of the market share for Internet users in the UK and they did it all in one year... Freeserve has around 1.5 million users and was one of the first to offer free Internet access, and is the dominant player in the UK... They have a strong business model and believe it will continue to grow." Melly figures Dixon's will earn about $2 for fiscal year ending in April of 2000 and $2.30 in fiscal 2001. He calculates that the market capitalization of Freeserve is about 60 percent of the capitalization of Dixon's. He believes the shares of Dixon's will move higher and eventually reflect the value of Freeserve. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. ICON Technology Fund siliconinvestor.com Nick Azari of Meridian Investment Management Corp. is an advisor to the ICON Technology Fund iconfunds.com. He provides the following interview with Mark Johnson of the Internet Financial Connection. Below is the write-up. Nick Azari of Meridian Investment Management Corp. is an advisor to the ICON Technology Fund. The ICON Fund has produced over an 85-percent gain so far this year and directly benefited from hot sectors that include: semiconductors, semiconductor equipment, computer networking, computer peripherals and computer hardware. "We have participated in the technology move quite nicely," says Nick. In light of the run in many of the companies that were in the ICON Technology Fund, the fund has sold many of the companies that are in the sectors mentioned above. Such names include: Intel (INTC 80 1/4), IBM (IBM 109 1/4), Hewlett-Packard (HWP 106 5/8), Dell (DELL 45), Compaq (CPQ 25 3/4), 3Com (COMS 48 1/2) and Cisco (CSCO 97 7/8). "Currently, we are a strange-looking technology fund," says Nick. "We sold many of the well-known technology names because we view them as overpriced." He notes that many of the technology-related names, generally speaking, are overpriced and their leadership is not sustainable. He points out that he has been moving into areas that are not as hot such as electronic instruments and computer systems. Companies he favors in that area include: Alpha Industries (AHAA 55), Coherent (COHR 25 3/8), Perkinelmer (PKI 42 1/2), Comdisco (CDO 31 3/4) and Computer Sciences (CSC 85 1/2). Even though the fund has liquidated many technology holdings due to valuation concerns as noted above, Nick is bullish on the long-term prospects in the technology industry. Y2K worries have not altered his positions and does not view them as a distraction. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Book Review: How to Become the "Millionaire Next Door" siliconinvestor.com Joe Dancy, co-editor of the IFC and editor of The Lone Star Growth Investor members.aol.com, provides the following book review To conserve bandwidth please use the link below to view the article. siliconinvestor.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. Interesting Articles on the Internet siliconinvestor.com Joe Dancy, co-editor of the IFC and editor of The Lone Star Growth Investor members.aol.com provides the following links to Interesting Articles On The Internet. These articles were from a daily worldwide search of over 150 newspapers and magazines. Subscriptions to his newsletter are FREE. members.aol.com INTERNET AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE Streeter and millions of others are cashing in on the latest Internet marketing craze: AllAdvantage and dozens of other companies are rushing to build big audiences by handing out cash to people willing to let advertisers track their Web surfing and send them ads tailored to their habits. bergen.com Mr. Klimento drives a truck, but he never makes any deliveries. Or rather, he is continuously delivering something - information. The panels of his 28-foot-long (9-meter-long), 12-foot-high Mitsubishi Fuso are a mobile billboard for GiftCertificates.com. It is a virtual truck for a virtual company. iht.com It looks like the deal of a millennium. A company goes public for the first time in what's known as an initial public offering (IPO). Investors clamor to own the first shares the company has ever traded publicly on the stock market. detnews.com While the business-to-consumer online marketplace continues to swell, yet another industry is ready to try to squeeze revenues out of the profit-stingy Internet medium. This time it's the hardware and home-improvement business, as major companies in the sector make plans for launching and expanding Web ventures. mercurycenter.com Sony Corp., the world's second-largest consumer electronics company, said Friday it planned to form an Internet bank in Japan in 2001, its latest move to attract consumers with a gamut of on-line services. iht.com The number of Web surfers visiting electronic commerce-related Web sites increased 44 per cent for the week to December 5 compared with the same week of last year, according to media research firm Media Metrix. technologypost.com AS soon as my jet lag-induced fog lifted after returning from six months in Australia, I couldn't help but notice the .com ads, everywhere. The ads aren't just from e-commerce players trying to get a piece of the $6 billion in consumer spending over the holiday season. nypostonline.com MARKETS AND INVESTING It's no secret why companies launch initial public stock offerings. They need to raise money to expand their businesses. And, IPOs, as the offerings are called, provide a way for the private owners to create a market for their company's stock -- and find out what investors are willing to pay for it. The psychology driving hot IPOs of late is not much a much different the impulse than drives the prices of collectibles like Beanie Babies. post-gazette.com Many high-tech firms such as Amazon.com have yet to make a buck in profit, but the so-called "New Economy" they embody may have already outgrown the "old" -- at least in the minds of many investors. detnews.com If you take the stock market news at face value, you would think that everyone anywhere near the market is getting rich. After all, the big U.S. market indicators such as the Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and the Nasdaq composite index ended the week at new highs or within spitting distance of them. Even though virtually all broad-market indicators are up this year, most of them substantially, more U.S. stocks have fallen in price than have risen. Strange, but true. washingtonpost.com The year isn't even officially over yet, but Amerindo Technology Fund has already been dubbed the top mutual fund of 1999 by Lipper Analytical Services Inc. nypostonline.com Bargain hunters should consider industry trends and company performance before buying. If your most pleasurable shopping pastime is digging through a store's bargain bin in search of that overlooked gem, then cheap stocks are probably your favorite kind of investment. detnews.com Given the intermittent problems he has had trading stocks through his online broker's system, Bob Schreier does not want to take any chances when the clock turns to January 1, 2000 -- so he's selling all his stocks. techweb.com When it comes to investing, Eric Efron, co-manager of the USAA Aggressive Growth fund, likes to think of himself as a 'futurologist.' 'A futurologist is someone who identifies and predicts profound trends in the economy and society, and selects stocks that will benefit from those changes.' globe.com Everybody agrees investing is risky. But what is risk? That's where people disagree. Traditionally, experts have gauged risk by looking at an investment's price gyrations. denverpost.wsj.com The year-end picture looks awfully familiar: The Dow Jones Industrial Average, despite cooling off a bit last week, is on track to finish the year with another 20% plus gain, while the Nasdaq Composite Index, fueled by technology stocks, hit record highs last week and has soared more than 60% this year. "There will be a day of reckoning for these star stocks one day," says Robert Freedman, chief investment officer at John Hancock Funds in Boston. "But who knows when that will happen?" denverpost.wsj.com BIOTECH, SEMICONDUCTORS, AND Y2K About 34 percent of Chicago-area residents say they plan to stockpile food, and 36 percent will withdraw extra cash as a precaution against Y2K problems. chicagotribune.com The recovery of the semiconductor industry is in full swing. The Semiconductor Industry Association announced Thursday that chip sales reached record levels in October, and National Semiconductor Corp. reported second-quarter earnings that were far stronger than expected. mercurycenter.com ECONOMICS The unemployment rate has fallen as steadily as a barometer announcing a storm. Employers struggle to find workers. The Federal Reserve raises interest rates in anticipation of inflationary pressures from higher labor costs. But those costs don't show up in the standard statistics. Yet they must be out there, so the search is on. The Fed itself is a prominent sleuth, and its latest lead is stock options. mercurycenter.com January, the United States will break a 30-year-old record for the longest economic expansion in history -- almost nine years of prosperity, which started in March 1991. Not since the 1960s have the engines of the economy run so smoothly and steadily. bergen.com At the Economic Strategy Institute, Managing Director Lawrence Chimerine worries that, without some mechanism to open up markets for U.S. products and services, particularly in Asia, there's no prospect of controlling a U.S. trade deficit that is now approaching $300 billion a year. In his view, that is an economic and political time bomb just waiting to explode at the first sign of an economic downturn in the United States. washingtonpost.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. siliconinvestor.com DISCLAIMER: All information contained on this page are from the authors cited. The information is believed to be reliable but there is no guarantee to its accuracy. Stock ideas presented by mutual fund managers, money managers, newsletter writers and SI participants may be bought or sold by them or the company they represent anytime before or after being presented in this newsletter. Anyone purchasing the stock ideas above should consult a financial advisor before doing so. The stock ideas mentioned above are not solicitations to buy or sell but to provide people with information from many sources. I (Mark Johnson editor of the IFC) am not paid any fees by the above writers nor by the companies represented. The stock ideas may represent a starting point for investors. People are encouraged to do their own homework before buying any stock. Neither Silicon Investor or the Internet Financial Connection will be responsible for any loss occurring from the purchase or sale of the above securities or any securities. ========================================================================= To Subscribe: Send a blank email to <mailto:ifc-subscribe@topica.com> Please tell a friend about this newsletter :) | ||||||||||||
|
| Home | Hot | SubjectMarks | PeopleMarks | Keepers | Settings |
| Terms Of Use | Contact Us | Copyright/IP Policy | Privacy Policy | About Us | FAQ | Advertise on SI |
| © 2025 Knight Sac Media. Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News |