When the five new stocks were selected for ISDEX (Internet Stock Index)
we thought they’d show promise in many ways.
USWeb (NASDAQ:USWB), N2K (NASDAQ:NTKI) and CBS.Sportsline USA (NASDAQ:SPLN)
all posted better than 20% gains in just a week. The other two newbies,
RealNetworks
(NASDAQ:RNWK) and Concentric (NASDAQ:CNCX), are both pretty fair performers
also in the short breath of 1998.
The upside arose largely from the fact that these issues were priced in a
weaker Internet IPO market in the last part of 1997, except NTKI, which
unbelievably priced at $19 per share and got buyers. Apparently there’s
many believers in the music sales via Internet model they employ.
In 1995, we did a forecast that showed as much as 10% of music sales happening
over the Internet by 2005. But we also think that the six heavyweights of
music, including Sony, Polygram, Warner, and BMG, could very well dominate a
direct sales effort. Ditto publishers in the Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) world.
That’s another saga. For now the stats tell the story.
Check out the new feature, ISDEX Composite, which price weights the 35
stocks into a
portfolio basket for dollar and percent gains as a blended investment
vehicle (sort of like NASDAQ Composite does). The ISDEX Average, meanwhile,
weights all stocks equally so that small and large influence the index on
the same playing field (for example, this is a preferred method to put AOL
on par with Sportsline).
Ups, Downs, & Sideways: Internet Stocks So Far In ’98
| ISDEX ® | Ticker | 06-Jan-98 | % change | Point | % change |
| Internet Stock Index | symbol | close | from | change | from |
| 31-Dec-97 | 31-Dec-97 | 31-Dec-96 | |||
| 06-Jan-98 | or IPO * | ||||
| ISDEX Geometric Average | 101.61 | 1.74% | 1.74 | 2.12% | |
| ISDEX Price Wtd. Composite | 812.88 | -0.41% | 5.51 | 47.61% | |
| NASDAQ | 1,580.14 | 0.62% | 9.79 | 22.39% | |
| DJIA | 7,906.25 | -0.03% | -2.00 | 22.61% | |
| Blended Indices Performance | 10,400.88 | 0.06% | 15.04 | 23.97% | |
| (% change sort) | |||||
| USWeb * | USWB | $12.25 | 31% | $2.88 | 63% |
| Network Solutions * | NSOL | $16.88 | 29% | $3.75 | -6% |
| PSINet | PSIX | $6.53 | 27% | $1.41 | -40% |
| Sportsline USA * | SPLN | $13.38 | 24% | $2.63 | 67% |
| N2K * | NTKI | $17.50 | 20% | $2.88 | -8% |
| Concentric * | CNCX | $10.00 | 13% | $10.00 | 63% |
| Excite | XCIT | $33.75 | 13% | $3.75 | 229% |
| Open Market | OMKT | $10.75 | 12% | $1.13 | -20% |
| Spyglass | SPYG | $5.50 | 11% | $0.56 | -56% |
| Security Dynamics | SDTI | $38.81 | 9% | $3.06 | 23% |
| E*TRADE | EGRP | $24.59 | 7% | $1.59 | 114% |
| Mecklermedia | MECK | $26.00 | 5% | $1.13 | 32% |
| Forefront | FFGI | $8.13 | 4% | $0.32 | 48% |
| Versant Object Technologies | VSNT | $14.38 | 4% | $0.56 | -23% |
| Raptor | RAPT | $13.50 | 2% | $0.25 | -33% |
| CyberCash | CYCH | $12.88 | 1% | $0.19 | -44% |
| RealNetworks * | RNWK | $14.00 | 1% | $0.13 | 12% |
| Infoseek | SEEK | $10.75 | 0% | $0.00 | 39% |
| Lycos | LCOS | $41.38 | 0% | $0.00 | 294% |
| Onsale * | ONSL | $18.00 | 0% | $0.00 | 200% |
| America Online | AOL | $90.00 | -1% | -$0.50 | 171% |
| VocalTec | VOCLF | $20.38 | -1% | -$0.13 | 247% |
| CKS Group | CKSG | $13.88 | -2% | -$0.25 | -50% |
| CheckPoint Software | CHKPF | $40.00 | -2% | -$0.75 | 84% |
| CMG Info | CMGI | $29.69 | -2% | -$0.56 | 77% |
| Amazon.Com * | AMZN | $58.06 | -4% | -$2.19 | 223% |
| Earthlink Network * | ELNK | $24.50 | -5% | -$1.25 | 88% |
| Trusted Information Systems | TISX | $9.50 | -5% | -$0.50 | -12% |
| Security First Net Bank | SFNB | $6.88 | -5% | -$0.38 | -33% |
| Yahoo! | YHOO | $64.00 | -8% | -$5.25 | 465% |
| Open Text | OTEXF | $12.06 | -10% | -$1.31 | 75% |
| @Home Network * | ATHM | $22.63 | -10% | -$2.50 | 115% |
| Mindspring | MSPG | $28.75 | -14% | -$4.88 | 369% |
| CNET | CNWK | $24.63 | -17% | -$4.88 | -15% |
| Netscape | NSCP | $19.00 | -22% | -$5.38 | -67% |
| TOTAL | 812.88 | -0.4% | 5.51 | 48% | |
| SIMPLE AVERAGE | 23.23 | -0.4% | 0.16 | 48% | |
| Red or bold = new stock for ISDEX ’98 |
