Boeing, Kopin, Netscape and Albertson's
A selection of some of the most intriguing stock newsletter suggestions on the Web. The items presented do not represent the views of
TheStreet.com
; rather, the collection is offered as a service to our members who may be scanning the Web for stock-related information.
Boeing
Online Investor
(Aug. 31)
Boeing
(BA) - Get Report
lost money last year for the first time in 50 years, and this year isn't looking so hot either. Rival
Airbus Industrie
snatched away a lucrative $9 billion, 188-aircraft deal with
British Airways
, its first ever with that airline. During the first half of the year, Airbus received more orders, 287 to Boeing's 282. And Boeing's market share, 70% last year, now is "much closer to 60%," says
Online Investor
.
Still, Boeing's loss of the British Airways contract probably wasn't as bad as it looked, says
Online Investor
. Boeing simply was unwilling to lower its price to preserve market share. Moreover, Boeing's production woes eventually will work themselves out, and its share price, now around 34 -- down from a 52-week high of 58 -- eventually will reflect the company's dominance of the industry, says
Online Investor
.
So is it time to buy Boeing? Not necessarily. The company's biggest problem is Japan. Travel growth rates in Asia, normally in double digits, are at 2%. And Japan has 10 times the effect on Boeing orders than other Asian countries have. "As long as Boeing remains at the mercy of an Asian crisis -- dependent on a turnaround by Japan -- the smart money may indeed be the money that isn't invested in Boeing at all," says
Online Investor
.
More information can be found at:
Kopin
Herring.com
(Sept. 1)
Surveying the wreckage of last Monday's market rout,
Herring.com
asked analysts to recommend small-cap stocks that had been reduced to bargain levels. Ted Kunzog of
LaSalle Street Securities
volunteered
Kopin
, a manufacturer of flat-panel displays and specialized chips for advanced wireless devices. The stock, he says, is a "screaming deal."
Kopin is working on a "fingernail size" high-resolution 0.24-inch diameter screen that will be able to display a full-size Web page. The screen will be incorporated into a variety of future communication devices, he says. Licensees include
Motorola
(MOT)
,
Siemens
(BA) - Get Report
and
Fuji
.
Kopin's second-quarter revenues were $6.7 million, an increase of 72% over the year-ago period. Losses for the quarter were a penny a share, an improvement over the 15-cent-a-share loss the previous year. The stock, at 15, is trading well below its 52-week high of 29.
More information can be found at:
Netscape
Forbes.com
(Sept. 3)
The evolution of one-time browser king
Netscape
(NSCP)
into an enterprise software/Internet media combo leaves the company looking "decidedly second-tier in an industry that doesn't give out silver medals," says
Forbes.com
.
Since being forced by competition from
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
to give away its browser -- the source of 45% of its revenues the year earlier -- Netscape now is providing large companies with software and services for managing intranets on the one hand and is turning its popular home page into an Internet portal on the other. Success is mixed. Second-quarter earnings were better than expected, the result of a few big deals that may be hard to repeat. Netscape's Web page views were up more than 10%, but the site lags leader
Yahoo!
in terms of revenue and revenue growth.
Netscape believes intranet software sales will be a $10 billion annual market in two-and-a-half years. "Obviously, that is enough to spread around," concedes
Forbes.com
. But the track record for software-turned-media companies is poor (Microsoft is a notable example), says
Forbes.com
, and Netscape's portal site "doesn't have that much to recommend it."
More information can be found at:
www.forbes.com
Albertson's
Isadore Barmash
(Sept. 4)
At first glance, the announced merger of
Albertson's
(ABS)
and
American Stores
(ASC) - Get Report
appears to create a juggernaut. The combined company, to be known as Albertson's, will displace
Kroger
(KR) - Get Report
as the largest U.S. supermarket company, giving it added clout with suppliers, an entry into the drugstore market and an impetus to expand into big eastern markets. But retail analyst Isadore Barmash says the merger raises many questions as well.
The new Albertson's will have 2,500 stores in 37 states, leaving 13 states ripe for expansion. But Barmash wonders whether the U.S. is "too big and too diverse" for a national chain, citing past difficulties suffered by
A&P
and
Safeway
(SWY)
in going national. "The solemn fact that all retail invaders find is that the public tends to favor familiar places to shop and that it takes quite a while, years, in fact, for shoppers to warm up to newcomers," Barmash says.
Barmash also cites a report from
Merrill Lynch
analyst Mark A. Husson noting that the combined company has a tremendous number of challenges to deal with, including melding two corporate cultures, cutting costs and defending its market share, all while driving comparable-store sales higher.
More information can be found at:
