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Stock picks by the pros
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March 27, 2000: 12:43 p.m. ET
GE's earnings prospects light up one analyst; Oracle cited by two experts
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Companies that help launch and maintain Internet commerce drew praise from money managers and analysts Monday.
Also attracting attention were a couple of Dow Jones industrial average components with highly regarded prospects as well as an Internet company incubator.
Here are some comments on the stocks that recent guests on CNNfn are buying -- and why:
 "GE (GE: Research, Estimates) (General Electric) underscores how important earnings prospects are for this year," said John H. Shaughnessy, chief investment officer, the Advest Group. "GE announced that its first-quarter earnings will be a bit higher than the Street is expecting, and that bolstered the stock. The company is highly diversified, and it's also a multinational, and therefore it will benefit from the recovery of the economies overseas. As we see GE, we think it will get to $170 a share or perhaps a bit higher by year end."
 'Pros' bonus: Hear John H. Shaughnessy, Advest group chief investment officer, on Apple Computer (AAPL: Research, Estimates).
Select: [179KB WAV] or [179KB AIFF].
IBM (IBM: Research, Estimates) is another Shaughnessy pick. "IBM is one of the ways investors can participate in the growth of e-commerce," he said. "IBM has growth potential of about 13-to-14 percent a year, and we think this is a quality way for investors to participate in electronic commerce worldwide."
 "There is a very exciting fundamental revolution going on in corporate computing right now, and it really involves what companies do with information within their four walls." said Bill Epifanio, enterprise software analyst, J.P. Morgan, "Companies are moving to increase their visibility, so that they can understand what's going on from all customer service touch points dealt with (by) using Customer Relationship Management software."
"I think that the two biggest names in CRM right now are, of course, Siebel Systems (SEBL: Research, Estimates), which is the No. 1 company in that area; the second is Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates). Oracle has had a very strong push. Aside from those two big ones, you're seeing a wave of new private companies -- and I don't want to get into those names yet -- but you will see some interesting competitors on the landscape."
"This debate between the old world and the new world does not really create profits or create productivity," commented Ash Rajan, senior vice president, Prudential Securities. "What will create profits is to find out what the old world companies are is doing to participate in the 'new economy.'"
"Take a company like Oracle. Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates) was an old-world technology name," Rajan said. "It realized really quickly that it wanted to be an enabler, a business-to-business software enabler, and that was their passport into the new economy; the company was successful in doing that. So you're going to see a whole series of companies -- even GM (GM: Research, Estimates) or Ford (F: Research, Estimates), for instance -- finding a place in the new economy by using business-to-business opportunities."
 "Oracle is really a leader in that B2B niche, and it's made such a splash in that new niche because it's created that niche for itself, and it's doing extremely well," said Rajan. "Obviously, if you want to time the stock, you pick it on a day when the stock price is down, but if you're a core-holding type of a buyer, Oracle should be right at the top of your list, without eyeing the price so much, if business-to-business e-commerce is your priority."
 'Pros' bonus: Hear commentary from Ash Rajan, senior vice president, Prudential Securities, on CVC Inc. (CVCI: Research, Estimates)
Select: [151KB WAV] or [151KB AIFF].
IONA Technologies (IONA: Research, Estimates) is another of Rajan's picks. "IONA is a perfect name, it's a newer name. This is an Irish company, a middleware name, and it's really dominated that little space. And it's actually cheap -- although none of my top stock picks are really cheap -- but from a relative point of view, IONA is cheaper than most of its peers in that area."
"They are developing new products, they're seeing good earnings," he said. "The stock is a 'must own'."
 "I'm not a big fan of the dot.coms, and we really haven't owned them for quite a while," said Marc Klee, fund manager, John Hancock Technology Fund. "I'm talking now about the B-to-Cs, the business-to-consumer end. I think a lot of the other, Internet companies, though, are really starting to do much better business; some of them have turned profitable. Yahoo! (YHOO: Research, Estimates) and eBay (EBAY: Research, Estimates), for instance -- both of these are profitable companies. I think people sometimes lose sight of that."
 "I'm going to stay with CMGI (CMGI: Research, Estimates)," said David Readerman, Internet analyst, Thomas Weisel Partners, LLC. "This is an interesting company."
"You get a little bit of an Internet incubator action in CMGI and incubators are a hot thing as ... witnessed by ... some of the other names out there. But they're also creating a bit of an operating company here, so I'm a big believer that you pick good managements focused on high growth areas and I think CMGI fits that double billing."
The views presented here are solely those of the analysts quoted. They do
not represent the opinions of CNNfn on whether to buy or sell shares of a
particular stock. 
--Compiled by Tatiana D. Helenius--
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