Bill Martin and Matt Ragas Highlight the Following Stocks: News Corporation, Gemstar, Overstock.com, Ciena, and Cox Communications.

Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 28, 2003

Bill Martin and Matt Ragas will help you find hidden profit potential by uncovering tell-tale indicators through their concise market commentary and valuable stock information. Read about News Corporation (NYSE:NWS), Gemstar (NASDAQ:GMST), Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK), Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN), and Cox Communications (NYSE:COX). Click here for the full story exclusively on Zacks.com: http://featuredexpert2bw.zacks.com/

Here are the highlights from the Featured Expert column:

An article in the latest issue of Barron's that caught the eyes of Bill Martin and Matt Ragas explored the performance of stocks that have big blockholders i.e. companies that have big outside investors. According to this piece, stocks with blockholders - investors with stakes of at least 5% - outperformed the S&P 500 index by an average of six percentage points a year over the past 20 years. Bill and Matt think it's important to keep in mind that all blockholders are certainly not created equal. In other words, as long time subscribers know, there are a handful of 'smart money' investors that they track closely and their buying will usually cause them to take a closer look at a stock. Most big mutual funds on the other hand, aren't long term value creators, but giant marketing organization with new capital to constantly deploy.

Said another way, Bill and Matt put more value in having a strategic investor like News Corporation (NYSE:NWS) in one of their stocks - Gemstar (NASDAQ:GMST) - than a mutual fund giant like Fidelity or Janus.

Insider Buying by OSTK CEO 

Shares of Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) moved higher recently after new Form 4 filings with the SEC disclosed a wave of insider buying by OSTK CEO and founder Patrick Byrne. As always, Bill and Matt love seeing an insider put their "money where their mouth is. "While Byrne already owned over 5 million shares of OSTK, this new over $4 million worth of purchases by him is a clear vote of confidence in his firm's future. As Bill and Matt said recently, they continue to believe that OSTK's e-commerce business is getting its legs back after a disappointing first quarter, and is poised for a good second half of the year and 2004.

Ciena Wins Cox Deal

Shares of optical networker Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN) moved higher after CIEN announced a new deal with Cox Communications (NYSE:COX). As part of the deal with COX, which is one of the nation's largest and smartest cable providers, CIEN will provide its Metro and Edge platform products to support COX's broadband network offerings. Bill and Matt consider customer wins to be one of the most important CIEN metrics to focus on right now, and are very happy with the new wins they are picking up lately.

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