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HEROES

Drug makers Interneuron Pharmaceuticals <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: IPIC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: IPIC)") end if %> and American Home Products <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AHP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AHP)") end if %> rose today after announcing that a study of their anti-obesity drug Redux (which AHP's Wyeth Ayerst division sold to Interneuron once it was approved) shows that patients who took the drug had about the same incidence of heart valve abnormalities as those taking placebos. The study found that 6.5% of the patients on Redux experienced heart valve abnormalities, which is significantly lower than the previously reported estimates of around 30% that were kicked about when the drug was voluntarily taken off shelves last September. The findings could arm the two companies with a strong defense against the more than 200 lawsuits that have been filed against them seeking compensation for heart damage allegedly caused by the diet drug. Interneuron surged $1 3/4 to $12 1/8 in heavy trading today, while American Home Products gained $1 1/8 to $96 1/2.

Capital One Financial <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: COF)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: COF)") end if %> jumped $5 15/16 to $84 13/16 after Merrill Lynch named the credit card issuer and specialty finance company one of its "Focus One" stocks of the week. Analyst Michael Hughes, who has a $113 per share price target on the stock, reiterated his "near-term buy" rating. Merrill Lynch is now modeling a 23% five-year growth rate, a full eight percentage points higher than the First Call industry composite growth rate and five percentage points higher than the mean five year-growth rate for Capital One indicated by First Call. Hughes believes there is upside in the 1999 earnings estimate of $4.14 per share and that the company will trade at an industry P/E multiple of 25 or better on higher EPS.

Coca-Cola <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: KO)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: KO)") end if %> fizzed up $3 3/16 to $80 5/8 after its Chairman Doug Ivester said the economic turmoil in Asia is a short-term situation and has not changed the soft-drink giant's optimistic outlook for the region. That's easy for Coke to say, with roughly 70% share of the carbonated drink market and an October Gallup poll reporting that 8 out of 10 of China's 1.2 billion inhabitants recognize the Coke brand. Ivester added that Coke plans to increase its investment in Asia and the company anticipates steady growth for its first quarter earnings in line with analysts' estimates. Separately, Coca-Cola Amatil, the largest Coke bottler outside the U.S. and 33% owned by Atlanta-based Coke, said sales increased 33% in the Philippines, 11% in Australia, and 9% in New Zealand, offsetting flat sales in Indonesia, the bottler's largest market.

QUICK TAKES: Semiconductor makers advanced after a U.S. trade panel ruled that dumping of products by Taiwanese computer chipmakers has hurt U.S. manufacturers, which could result in penalty tariffs on the Taiwanese products. Micron Technology <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MU)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MU)") end if %>, which gained $2 15/16 to $32, petitioned the Commerce Department in February 1997 to investigate alleged product dumping by Asian competitors. Advanced Micro Devices <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AMD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AMD)") end if %> added $7/8 to $29 15/16. Texas Instruments <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: TXN)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: TXN)") end if %> rose $2 7/8 to $57. Dallas Semiconductor <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: DS)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: DS)") end if %> jumped $2 1/8 to $35 3/4, and SGS-Thomson NV <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: STM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: STM)") end if %> climbed $1 13/16 to $79 3/8.

Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: PG)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: PG)") end if %> gained $3 3/16 to $87 9/16 after announcing it will acquire 100% ownership of a joint venture in Argentina and Chile from its partner Empresas CMPC. The companies formed the venture in 1992 to market disposable diapers and feminine pads in Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia... America Online <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AOL)") end if %> gained $4 5/8 to $72 15/16 as the world's largest online service provider announced that visits to its Tax Planning Forum have increased 85% from last year. In addition, AOL president and CEO Bob Pittman gave a bullish speech about the mass market leadership of AOL at the "Big Picture Conference" yesterday. BancAmerica Robertson Stephens also raised the company to a "strong buy."

Food and drug retailer Safeway <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SWY)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SWY)") end if %> rang up $2 to $39 after Goldman Sachs added the company to its private client focus list. Goldman noted that the company has the opportunity to generate compound EPS returns of 15% over the next three years and is rapidly achieving national brand recognition... Health management company Oxford Health Plans <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: OXHP)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: OXHP)") end if %> gained $1 9/16 to $16 1/2 as The Wall Street Journal reported that it is giving its founder and former chairman Stephen Wiggins a $9 million retirement package and its new CEO Norman Payson a compensation package that includes stock options of as many as 3 million shares... WinsLoew Furniture <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: WLFI)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: WLFI)") end if %>, which makes aluminum furniture and contract seating for the hospitality and office furniture markets, jumped $3 to $25 after announcing that it expects Q1 earnings to be between $0.33 and $0.36 per share. That compares with $0.15 per share for the year-earlier quarter and the First Call mean estimate of $0.18.

B/E Aerospace <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: BEAV)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: BEAV)") end if %> took off, rising $3 3/4 to $31 7/8 after the airplane interior equipment maker announced it will acquire aircraft equipment and components manufacturer Puritan-Bennett Aero Systems Co. from Nellcor Puritan Bennett for about $69.7 million in cash... Cybex Computer Products <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CBXC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CBXC)") end if %>, which makes computer keyboard, video monitor, and mouse switch and extension products, continued rising today, gaining $1 3/16 to $33 3/4 after the company announced after Monday's close that Q4 earnings will surpass analysts' expectations... Healthcare supply management company McKesson Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MCK)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MCK)") end if %> jumped $5 1/4 to $63 after announcing that its subsidiary, McKesson BioServices, has signed a three-year contract with the state of Maryland to provide vaccine storage and distribution services for the state's Vaccines For Children program.

Credit card and financial services company Providian Financial <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: PVN)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: PVN)") end if %> rose $4 1/8 to $61 9/16 after announcing it has agreed to buy a $1.1 billion portfolio of credit card receivables from First Union <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: FTU)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: FTU)") end if %> for an undisclosed purchase price... Align-Rite Ltd., a subsidiary of photomasks manufacturer Align-Rite International <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MASK)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: MASK)") end if %>, announced that it has ordered multiple RT-8000-series systems from Applied Materials <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: AMAT)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: AMAT)") end if %> to perform photomask defects inspection at its facility in Bridgend, Wales. The news sent Applied Materials up $2 5/16 to $37 5/8.

RATINGS MOVERS: Kmart <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: KM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: KM)") end if %> rang up $1 9/16 to $18 1/4 after Merrill Lynch reiterated its near-term "buy" rating on the discount retailer and raised its price target to $25 per share from $19... Best Buy <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BBY)") end if %> added $4 13/16 to $71 1/2 after Goldman Sachs reiterated its "trading buy" rating on the consumer electronics retailer... Airborne Freight <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ABF)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ABF)") end if %> rose $1 1/8 to $38 3/4 after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating on the international airfreight carrier to "strong buy" from "outperform"... U.S. Vision <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: USVI)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: USVI)") end if %> jumped $1 3/4 to $12 after Prudential Securities initiated coverage on the optical products and services retailer with a "buy" rating.

Casual, outdoor, and adventure footwear retailer Track 'n Trail <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: TKTL)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: TKTL)") end if %> trekked up $2 to $9 after BT Alex. Brown raised its rating on the company to "buy" from "market perform"... Hartford Life <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: HLI)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: HLI)") end if %> gained $1 7/8 to $48 7/16 after Salomon Smith Barney upgraded its rating on the insurance company to "buy" from "outperform"... Rambus Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: RMBS)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: RMBS)") end if %>, which makes chip-to-chip interface technology, added another $3 1/4 to $47 following Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's upgrade of its rating on the company to "outperform" from "neutral" yesterday... LSI Logic <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: LSI)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: LSI)") end if %> gained $2 to $27 1/4 as Gruntal raised its rating on the semiconductor company to "strong buy" from "hold."

GOATS

Consumer electronics manufacturer Zenith Electronics Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ZE)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ZE)") end if %> fell $2 1/16 to a 52-week low of $4 9/16 after the company's auditors attached a "going concern" qualification to its Q4 financial results. In laymen's terms, the auditors are saying that continued poor earnings and working capital performance are prompting serious doubts about Zenith's ability to continue its current operations. Today the firm reported a Q4 loss (including charges) of $2.32 per share, more than twice the loss of $1.05 per share a year ago. Since South Korea's LG Electronics acquired a 55% stake in the company in November 1995, Zenith's losses have expanded at a 54% compounded annual rate. To address the problem, the company is working to develop a "comprehensive operational and financial restructuring plan" by Q2, which will involve cutting costs, outsourcing manufacturing, and using its digital TV technology to pull the company back into profitability.

Ocwen Financial Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: OCN)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: OCN)") end if %> slid $2 1/2 to $25 1/4 after the West Palm Beach, Florida-based financial services company agreed to acquire the British loan portfolio, securitized loan residuals, and loan origination and servicing units of Cityscape Financial Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CTYSC)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CTYSC)") end if %>. Ocwen, which services nonperforming and subperforming mortgage loans, will pay roughly $476 million for the assets. Yesterday, Cityscape said its U.K. operations (classified as discontinued operations on the company's income statement and balance sheet) lost $229.5 million in Q4. An Ocwen spokesperson was unable to shed light on the recoverability of Cityscape's U.K. loans or how much of the portfolio was issued before the regulatory crackdown on sub-prime lending initiated by the Blair government last year. However, Ocwen has been servicing loans made by Cityscape for a number of months, so it does have a good feel for the portfolio. In addition, Ocwen's management is experienced at picking up cheap assets as veteran buyers of cheap assets that came out of numerous S&L failures. More insight on the subject should by provided during an Ocwen conference call at 3 p.m. EST on Thursday, April 2. Interested parties should dial (888) 790-1961. The password is "report."

QUICK CUTS: Computer products retailer CompUSA <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CPU)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CPU)") end if %> sank $5 1/8 to $21 after saying that "greater-than-anticipated declines in average selling prices" will cut $0.03 to $0.04 per share off of its fiscal Q3 earnings and lower gross margins to about 14.1%... Digital printing equipment maker Presstek Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: PRST)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: PRST)") end if %> lost $5 7/16 to $17 11/16 after announcing yesterday that fiscal 1998 EPS will be lower than a year ago on "only slightly" higher sales figures... Cigarette maker Philip Morris <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MO)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MO)") end if %> dropped another $1 7/16 to $40 1/4 this morning on continued fallout from the bill introduced this week by Sen. John McCain that calls for larger payments by major tobacco companies to settle health-related lawsuits. Fellow cigarette manufacturer B.A.T. Industries <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(AMEX: BTI)") else Response.Write("(AMEX: BTI)") end if %> slipped $7/8 to $19 3/4, while UST Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: UST)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: UST)") end if %> slid $13/16 to $31 7/16.

Vari-Lite International <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: LITE)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: LITE)") end if %>, a provider of lighting systems for the entertainment industry, slipped $3 3/16 to $8 13/16 after saying it expects a fiscal Q2 loss of between $0.02 to $0.06 per share. The Street had been expecting earnings of $0.05 per share... Computer network security products developer SAC Technologies <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SACM)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SACM)") end if %> declined $3/4 to $7 1/2 after reporting a Q4 loss of $0.12 per share versus a loss of $0.06 per share a year ago... Billing data collection and processing firm Axiom Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: AXIM)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: AXIM)") end if %> was dumped $1 13/16 to $4 7/16 after saying delays in orders from Asia will contribute to a fiscal Q2 loss of between $0.42 and $0.45 per share. The First Call mean estimate called for earnings of $0.02 per share.

Kidney dialysis services provider Total Renal Care Holdings <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: TRL)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: TRL)") end if %> lost $7/8 to $32 7/16 after announcing expenses from its recent acquisition of Renal Treatment Centers Inc. will result in a $130 to $140 million charge against fiscal Q1 earnings... Pharmaceutical manufacturer ICN Pharmaceuticals <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ICN)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ICN)") end if %> slid $1 1/16 to $47 15/16 after saying that an 82% devaluation of the Yugoslavian currency will result in a foreign exchange loss of about $27 million in fiscal Q2. The company derives roughly 30% of its total revenues from its Yugoslavian operations... QuickResponse Services <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: QRSI)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: QRSI)") end if %> slipped $2 9/16 to $50 15/16 after Volpe Brown downgraded the provider of retail merchandise and logistics solutions to "neutral" from "buy."

International Home Foods <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: IHF)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: IHF)") end if %> lost $1 1/8 to $32 1/8 after Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette downgraded the maker of Chef Boyardee prepared foods and Pam cooking spray to "market perform" from "buy"... Mountain bike shock absorber maker Rockshox Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: RSHX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: RSHX)") end if %> was jolted $27/32 to $6 3/4 after announcing that soft demand will cause Q4 EPS to be about breakeven on $22 million in sales, missing the First Call mean EPS estimate of $0.07... Telecommunications services provider Intermedia Communications <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ICIX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: ICIX)") end if %> was cut $2 1/4 to $77 3/8 after the company said it is cautious about making an exact forecast of its fiscal Q1 earnings because a "high level of business activity" has reduced the firm's "historic level of visibility."

Drug delivery company Cygnus Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CYGN)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: CYGN)") end if %> tanked $3 1/2 to $13 after the company said a distribution agreement with medical supplies provider Becton, Dickinson and Co. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BDX)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BDX)") end if %> for Cygnus' GlucoWatch glucose-monitoring device has been terminated... Medical monitoring products developer SpaceLabs Medical <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SLMD)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SLMD)") end if %> tumbled $2 3/8 to $19 3/4 after forecasting a fiscal Q1 loss of $0.10 per share to breakeven, missing the First Call mean estimate of earnings of $0.29 per share.

FOOL ON THE HILL
An Investment Opinion
by Louis Corrigan

Keeping A-float

Siebert Financial <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SIEB)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SIEB)") end if %> is best known for its Muriel Siebert discount brokerage operations and for its municipal bond underwriting. Founder and CEO Muriel Siebert is also a good Wall Street story, as she was the first woman to gain a seat on the New York Stock Exchange back in 1967. Siebert Financial also just happens to be one of the top-performing stocks of 1998, up 367% to $33. Before Barron's took a swipe at the company two weeks ago, the stock was a whopping five-bagger, up as much as 536% to $48 1/4.

Stranger still, both Siebert and her CFO Richard Feldman have repeatedly said that there's basically no corporate news to explain this outsized stock increase. On February 4, the firm announced FY97 earnings of $0.50 per share, a 10% decrease from the pro forma $0.55 reported for FY96. Revenues were up a modest 7% to $25.9 million. The fourth quarter results were considerably stronger, with sales up 12% and EPS rising to $0.14 from a pro forma $0.10. Even so, the stock now sports a trailing P/E of 66 and a price-to-sales ratio of 6.7. Both seem awfully pricey for a company reporting strong 10% net profit margins but only modest top line growth.

When addressing market distortions, it's often best to resort to George Soros, world-class speculator and philanthropist. Soros owes much of his success to a theory of human fallibility that asserts that we can never have more than an imperfect understanding of the market because our imperfect knowledge is always affecting the market, which itself is always shaping our thinking about it. That is, the market is always a fiction we're creating and passing off to ourselves as truth. The theory is both obtuse and commonsensical. Its real power is to explain why boom/bust cycles are so common.

Soros is not a technical analyst in the sense of using price charts to divine the future. Yet his theory essentially works to explain market activity as a function, in part, of investor psychology. In that sense, his approach differs sharply from the kind of fundamental analysis perhaps best represented by the PEG ratio, which offers a shorthand means of getting at a firm's discounted future cash flow, or the current value of the cash a business is expected to generate in the future.

Yet academic studies show that when a company is beating analysts' earnings estimates quarter after quarter, analysts will keep raising their estimates until at some point they become far too aggressive. In a sense, the feedback loop between Wall Street and the company ends up spiraling out of control. As Soros would say, that's ultimately the nature of the loop -- imperfect.

Sometimes stocks move spectacularly, up or down, even when the business fundamentals do not obviously justify the market activity. If the move is genuinely unwarranted, then the market will correct the error, though that may take months or even years. Yet, as Soros suggests, the very fact of a stock move has a way of generating potentially plausible explanations, which in turn generate additional movement as momentum investors jump on or off.

Soros can help us a bit with Siebert, then. Despite there being no published analyst estimates for the company, the market hasn't lacked for explanations. On February 13, Siebert shares rallied $6 3/16 to $16 15 /16 on 87,100 shares traded after no shares had been traded in the previous three sessions. The plausible reason? On that day, Siebert declared a 4-for-1 stock dividend, an economic non-event but one that creates positive investor psychology. That's especially true in this case since it seemed hard to imagine that a firm would split its shares into a penny stock. Obviously, the split must have been a signal that the stock was undervalued.

Again, on March 18, the stock rose $5 1/2 to $34. The next day, a Reuters article quoted various Wall Street analysts speculating that some big U.S. commercial banks were looking to acquire well-placed brokerage firms. Of course, Siebert Financial is tiny compared to Merrill Lynch <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MER)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MER)") end if %> and, presumably, offers little that Chase Manhattan <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: CMB)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: CMB)") end if %> couldn't create itself. Nonetheless, sticking Siebert into that vaguely plausible context was enough to send the stock even higher. On March 19 it closed at $42. The next day, it hit an intraday high of $48 1/4 on volume of 155,100 shares.

Yet neither Soros' theory of market inefficiency nor any fundamental read of Siebert's business or takeover value can adequately explain the special type of market feedback system, prone to remarkable distortion, behind Siebert's rise. Remember Economics 101 and the law of supply and demand? If you have a scarce and fixed quantity of any commodity, what happens to price if demand shoots up? That seems to be the main story with Siebert Financial.

Last year, Nasdaq moved to make listing requirements a bit tougher for stocks on its SmallCap system. Under the new rules, firms had to increase the number of shares in the float to 500,000. The float is simply the number of shares that are issued and available for trading by the public. That is, it's the stock not held by corporate insiders and not held by any person or firm that is the beneficial owner of more than 5% of the outstanding shares. The problem, for Siebert, is that Muriel Siebert herself owned 5.075 million (96.7%) of the 5.248 million shares the firm had outstanding. The float could hardly have been smaller. The company's 4-for-1 stock split, then, was designed specifically to move the firm into compliance with Nasdaq's new rule by increasing the float from 173,000 shares to 692,000.

The story should remind us that there are sometimes supply-and-demand fundamentals at work in financial markets that (at least temporarily) may prove more important than business fundamentals or investor psychology, though all may operate together. A stock is simply bound to prove quite volatile when a company has such a small float. On three recent occasions, the equivalent of Siebert's entire float changed hands in one day. That would be like two billion shares of Coca-Cola <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: KO)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: KO)") end if %> trading in one day. Moreover, stocks with small floats can be easy to manipulate. It's not a huge leap to imagine that certain savvy traders, even the market makers, might have done well during Siebert's phenomenal rally.

Investors can easily protect themselves simply by checking out a firm's Def 14A annual proxy statements filed with the SEC or a newly public company's final 424B prospectus available via EDGAR (http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/srch-edgar). To get absolutely current figures, you may need to read through additional S-1/A registration statements, 13G/13D statements, or notifications of insider sales. Or simply call the company. Still, the proxy or prospectus will give you a good overview of which insiders own a significant amount of stock and what other outside investors, such as venture capitalists or mutual funds, hold large stakes.

Whenever the number of shares in the public float is relatively small, an investor would be smart to consider how much of the market action is due simply to a small public supply meeting up with strong demand. The float, for example, should be of special interest to investors in some highflying new issues engaged in Internet-related businesses. That's especially true since the float usually increases as the typical six-month lock-up period ends and insiders are allowed by the underwriters to sell some of their shares.

CONFERENCE CALLS

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