Of the 20 stocks in IPODEX 18 were up on the week with temperatures rising at
least on Wall Street despite a cold snap across much of the U.S.
Indy investors bid up shares of uBID (NASDAQ:UBID) to record heights since
December 17 as shares soar 342% for the new IPO. The underlying fuel for the
run looks like the very small float, just 1.5 million shares in the public’s
hands. With volume of 5.5 million shares traded yesterday that means UBID was
turned over more than 3.5x.
However, we think more established and better known rival, ONSALE
(NASDAQ:ONSL) has more of a lead on uBID–but trades at 72% of the lesser
known uBID.
Here’s another angle, Egghead.com (NASDAQ:EGGS) trades at about one-third of
UBID despite also being in the surplus auction business. The most important
element that may be overlooked is ONSALE’s deals with Yahoo to provide
auctions to its user base in two flavors: personal auctions eBay style and
auctions for small businesses.
That positionis an enviable one from our standpoint and one that gives it an
edgeover uBID we believe. Let’s go to the table:
| INTERNET.COM’S | Ticker | Share price | Share price | % change | % change | IPO |
| IPODEX | symbol | 12/23/98 | 12/17/98 | period | price | |
| uBid | UBID | $188.00 | $42.56 | 341.7% | 1153.3% | $15.00 |
| XOOM.com | XMCM | $44.00 | $29.50 | 49.2% | 214.3% | $14.00 |
| CDnow | CDNW | $26.25 | $17.69 | 48.4% | 64.1% | $16.00 |
| Broadcast.com | BCST | $98.75 | $68.50 | 44.2% | 448.6% | $18.00 |
| EarthWeb | EWBX | $54.23 | $39.00 | 39.1% | 287.4% | $14.00 |
| theglobe.com | TGLO | $45.00 | $33.00 | 36.4% | 400.0% | $9.00 |
| Digital River | DRIV | $37.94 | $29.13 | 30.3% | 346.3% | $8.50 |
| Verisign | VRSN | $65.75 | $51.94 | 26.6% | 369.6% | $14.00 |
| Exodus | EXDS | $64.00 | $50.88 | 25.8% | 326.7% | $15.00 |
| eBay | EBAY | $298.00 | $238.31 | 25.0% | 1555.6% | $18.00 |
| ISS Group | ISSX | $47.88 | $38.69 | 23.7% | 117.6% | $22.00 |
| Cyberian Outpost | COOL | $33.13 | $27.88 | 18.8% | 84.0% | $18.00 |
| Beyond.com | BYND | $25.75 | $21.69 | 18.7% | 186.1% | $9.00 |
| Infospace.com | INSP | $39.75 | $33.81 | 17.6% | 165.0% | $15.00 |
| 24/7 Media | TFSM | $31.00 | $28.00 | 10.7% | 121.4% | $14.00 |
| Broadcom | BRCM | $119.13 | $107.88 | 10.4% | 396.4% | $24.00 |
| DoubleClick | DCLK | $48.25 | $45.19 | 6.8% | 183.8% | $17.00 |
| GeoCities | GCTY | $37.00 | $36.94 | 0.2% | 117.6% | $17.00 |
| Netgravity | NETG | $17.50 | $17.94 | -2.4% | 94.4% | $9.00 |
| Inktomi | INKT | $131.25 | $135.50 | -3.1% | 629.2% | $18.00 |
| TOTAL | 1,452.55 | 1,094.00 | 32.8% | 377.0% | 304.50 | |
| AVERAGE | 72.63 | 54.70 | 32.8% | 377.0% | 15.23 |
Beyond uBID the next 10 Internet IPOs fared well this week also, with each
rising more than 20% since December 17. Direct marketer/buying club service
XOOM.com (NASDAQ:XMCM) came in at second-biggest week’s gainer, up nearly 50%.
Likewise, community hub theglobe.com (NASDAQ:TGLO) also found upside with a
36% rise.
Web developer site Earthweb (NASDAQ:EWBX) regained some recognition with
international expansion plans in German, French and Spanish. It already has a
Japanese site which opened last March.
Software distributor network Digital River (NASDAQ:DRIV) inked two high-
profile deals, one with Wal-Mart and the other with KMart, to sell software
via each company Web site. Web hoster Exodus (NASDAQ:EXDS) got a tout from
Everen with a six-month price target of $60, which EXDS already hit. The
12-month target is $87 per share.
The two duds this week are Inktomi (NASDAQ:INKT) and NetGravity(NASDAQ:NETG).
Inktomi has a valuable franchise, we believe, and could find some more running
room. Holding it back is the lack of large scale Websites to deploy its search
wholesaling service on–it’s already signed many larger sites including
Microsoft MSN and Yahoo. Inktomi’s caching software also is widely deployed so
we think INKT could move here.
On the IPO pipeline front two deals are now on tap: iVillage, a women-focused
Web network, and ZDNet, a spinoff from the publisher ZD. While both are
different firms we think each could command a initial IPO valuation north of
$400 million if the window for IPOs continues through to Spring 1999. Look for
in-depth analysis on both IPOs in Internet Stock Report soon.
Steve Harmon’s top 10 Internet stocks to watch in1998 are up
350%…for 1999 Steve Harmon’s Hot Stock Watch will beavailable as a monthly
e-newsletter. Interested? — put
“HotWatch” in subject header andemail us now for details
