Bill Martin and Matt Ragas Highlight; Microsoft, Intel, Texas Instruments, Ciena, JDS Uniphase, CNET, TheStreet.com, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Bank One, Synovus, and El Paso.Business Editors CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 21, 2003 Get two market experts for the price of one, and let Bill Martin and Matt Ragas add breadth to your investments and uncover profits from across the entire marketplace through several stock commentaries. Get their takes on Microsoft (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :MSFT MSFT Microsoft (stock symbol) MSFT Movimento Sociale Fiamma Tricolore (Italy) MSFT Multi-Stage Fitness Test MSFT Master of Science in Family Therapy MSFT Macalester Students for Fair Trade ), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC INTC Intel (NASDAQ symbol) INTC Intercept INTC Interrupt Controller ), Texas Instruments See TI. (company) Texas Instruments - (TI) A US electronics company. A TI engineer, Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit in 1958. Three TI employees left the company in 1982 to start Compaq. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :TXN TXN Texas Instruments (stock symbol) TXN Transaction (databases) TXN Tunxi, China (Airport Code) TXN Tarxien (postal locality, Malta) ), Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN CIEN Ciena Corporation (stock symbol) ), JDS Uniphase JDS Uniphase Corporation (JDSU) NASDAQ: JDSU is a company that manufactures and designs products for fiber optic communication and test equipment. It is headquartered in Milpitas, California, USA. (NASDAQ:JDSU JDSU JDS Uniphase (stock symbol) JDSU Jharkhand Disom Students Union ), CNET (body) CNET - Centre national d'Etudes des Telecommunications. The French national telecommunications research centre at Lannion. Networks (NASDAQ:CNET), TheStreet.com (NASDAQ:TSCM TSCM technical surveillance countermeasures (US DoD) TSCM Tactical Strike Coordination Manager TSCM Tactical Strike Coordination Module TSCM Temperature Scram Circuit Monitor TSCM Tomahawk Strike Coordination Module ), JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM JPM J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. (stock symbol) JPM Juan Pablo Montoya (formula 1 driver) JPM Jabatan Perdana Menteri (Malaysia) JPM Journal of Property Management ), Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER mer Among the Cheremi and Udmurt peoples of Russia, a sacred grove where people of several villages gathered periodically to hold religious festivals and sacrifice animals to nature gods. ), Bank One (NYSE:ONE), Synovus (NYSE:SNV SNV Synovus Financial Corp. (stock symbol) SNV Schweizerische Normenvereinigung (Swiss standards body) SNV Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers (Netherlands Development Organization) ) and El Paso (NYSE:EP). Click here for the full story exclusively on Zacks.com: http://featuredexpert2bw.zacks.com/ Here are the highlights from the Featured Expert column: In the wake of "better than expected" earnings reports from the likes of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), and Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), the Nasdaq is spiking higher amid a generally flat market. Interestingly, just like what happened with IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , once investors had time to tear apart the bottomline details of its first quarter report, investors are finding reasons to question the numbers at Intel and Microsoft. All in all, while Bill Martin and Matt Ragas continue to maintain a moderately bullish bias for the overall market, they're decidedly negative when it comes to pure tech as they believe that the demand and pricing trends for "pure tech" companies continue to be negative. Citing industry pricing pressures, continued demand issues, and increased competition, Morgan Stanley recently reduced its "Equal Weight" rating in Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN) to "Under Weight". Morgan Stanley's thinking echoes much of what Bill and Matt have been saying about Ciena and JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ:JDSU) for over six months now. Undermining the big picture view, and unfortunately for these companies, the telecom equipment business (and the burn rates of these companies) has shown no signs of stabilizing, and the share prices of CIEN and JDSU are both too lofty to consider buying. On Wednesday, Bill and Matt sold 800 of the 2060 shares of CNET Networks (NASDAQ:CNET) that they own in the high risk, high return Babe Ruth model portfolio. After deducting a $15 commission fee, the total transaction generated $2,465.00 in proceeds. Why Sell 40% of CNET? Bill and Matt's decision to pare back their CNET holding is profit-taking and prudent portfolio management - plain and simple. While they don't see any near term operational catalysts on the horizon for CNET, Bill and Matt plan to continue to hold the remainder of their CNET position to benefit both from the strong money inflows into this sector, as well as the fact that the CNET franchise remains well positioned to benefit from an eventual upturn in the tech ad spending market. Shares of TheStreet.com (NASDAQ:TSCM) screamed higher in active trading Wednesday, up over 13% to $3.96 per share. This puts Bill and Matt up 50% over their average TSCM buy price of $2.64 per share. Bill and Matt have rated TSCM as one of their favorite short, medium and long term Scoreboard stocks for quite some time. They plan to continue to hold all of their TSCM shares for now, as they believe that the company is well positioned to demonstrate increasing operating momentum over the next few quarters. Continuing the streak of relatively upbeat earnings reports that have been seen from the financial services industry, both JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) posted better than expected results Wednesday morning that pleased the street. Bill and Matt continue to view the earnings news out of the financial services sector as being bullish news. Banking-wise, they're looking at some of the industry's recent laggard stocks as potential plays, including Bank One (NYSE:ONE) and Synovus (NYSE:SNV). Battered merchant energy and pipeline player El Paso (NYSE:EP), a holding in Bill and Matt's Special Opportunity model portfolio, recently announced that it had sold East Coast Power, a New Jersey based cogeneration facility, for $456 million in cash to Goldman Sachs. Asset-rich EP is part of their long term "win big or bust" basket bet on the troubled merchant energy sector. It's important to understand that this remains a highly volatile and high risk sector with hurdles ahead. That said, given the recent desire by the big banks to refinance merchant energy players outside of bankruptcy, Bill and Matt are more confident than ever in their long term basket bet on this indebted sector. Don't miss out on your chance to get the latest thoughts on the market, strategy, and specific stocks from Matt Ragas on Wednesday, April 23rd at 4:30 EST EST electroshock therapy. EST abbr. electroshock therapy in the new Zacks.com chatroom. Learn more about Bill Martin and Matt Ragas' portfolios and stock commentaries by clicking: http://featuredexpert3bw.zacks.com/ About Zacks Featured Experts To be a successful investor you need professional advice. Experts who know what they're talking about and can help you achieve your financial goals in good markets...and especially in bad ones will help you improve your portfolio. That is why Zacks Investment Research Zacks Investment Research A firm that compiles earnings estimates and brokerage firm investment recommendations for thousands of publicly traded firms. has assembled the best investment experts in the business to offer their powerful advisory newsletters to you on all the major investment topics: Stocks, Mutual Funds, Bonds, Options, Futures etc. Recommendations from Featured Experts Highlighted in FREE Investment Newsletter The best way to tap into the powerful advice from these experts is through our free weekly e-mail newsletter, "Profit from the Pros". Each week we highlight several Featured Experts in this free e-mail newsletter. Get your free subscription to "Profit from the Pros" at: http://www.freeprofit1bw.zacks.com About Zacks Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1981 to compile, analyze, and distribute investment research to both institutional and individual investors. The guiding principle behind our work is the belief that investment experts, such as brokerage analysts and investment newsletter writers, have superior knowledge about how to invest successfully. Our goal is to unlock their profitable insights for our customers. And there is no better way to enjoy this investment success, than with a FREE subscription to "Profit from the Pros" weekly e-mail newsletter. For your free newsletter, visit http://www.freeprofitbw.zacks.com Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Disclaimer: Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should always research companies and securities before making any investments. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. |
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