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Each and every week at 7:00 PM EST on Sunday, Stockprowler will bring you his latest hot stock pick of the week ...free on the Web! Stockprowler uses state of the art technology to look under the rocks and find those little stocks with the potential to make the BIG moves. Stockprowler screens primarily NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ stocks trading around $3 or under. These stocks offer considerable leverage at minimal cost. It is not uncommon for these stocks to make moves of 30%, 50%, or more. Please read our disclaimer before trading in any stocks mentioned on this Web site. So are you ready? Here's the Stockprowler report for the week of Monday, July 31, 2000: |
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Last week's pick, online retailer Egghead.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:EGGS), beat Wall Street expectations for the second-quarter by 6 cents. The company, based in Menlo Park, Calif., said its net loss, excluding lingering merger costs, was $17.7 million, or 44 cents a share for the three months ended June 30, compared to a loss of $22.2 million, or 60 cents a share a year earlier. The company's performance was better than the expected loss of 50 cents a share forecast by analysts polled by Wall Street tracking firm First Call/Thomson Financial. Egghead posted $126 million in revenues, ahead of the $122 million from a year earlier. The company has no short or long term debt and has cash reserves of $52 million. Egghead.com closed Friday at 2 1/2. Stockprowler anticipates a dot-com recovery in the second half of the year with survivors such as Egghead.com well positioned to ride the next wave. Stockprowler's pick this week is... Talk City, Inc. (Nasdaq:TCTY)
Once again Stockprowler.com ventures forth into dot-com land for the pick of the week. Our pick this week is Talk City (Nasdaq:TCTY) a leading provider of scalable on-line communities and other web-based relationship solutions for businesses and consumers. Talk City offers businesses a wide range of services that help them develop and expand online interactive dialog with customers, suppliers and employees. These services include designing fully integrated, customized communities, producing online events, conducting online market research and facilitating online meetings. For consumers, Talk City operates a network of online communities located at www.talkcity.com. The network includes 20 topical categories, over 50 themed communities, 50 co-branded network participant communities and thousands of user-generated communities. Some of the Talk City network participants-businesses for whom Talk City manages a consumer online community as part of www.talkcity.com--include Cox Interactive Media, the Hearst Corporation, the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., WebTVNetwork, and AT&T WorldNet. Talk City has also established partnerships across multiple industries and media forms--including partnerships with major media companies, Internet content companies and Internet service providers‹with its network of consumer community sites, www.talkcity.com. Talk City works with these partners to co-produce, co-brand and co-market community services that leverage partners' content, brand or customer relationships. By integrating these co-branded services into Talk City's community network, we enjoy exceptional distribution, content and marketing leverage. In addition to the forementioned Cox Interactive Media, Inc., Hearst Communications, Inc., National Broadcasting Company, Inc., Network Participants include WebTV Network, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, and AT&T WorldNet Service. Recently, the company's e-marketing services have been enlisted by several leading financial service institutions to extend their online marketing presence and deliver added value to their customers. "The Internet is transforming competition in financial services," said Peter Friedman, chairman and CEO of Talk City, Inc. "Companies are looking beyond transactions to interact with customers and build deep, loyal relationships. Our clients in this industry are finding that customers aren't always interested in dozens of options, the cheapest fees or the latest, complex account. What they do want is a service that responds to their individual needs. Talk City delivers a turnkey solution for financial services companies to capitalize on this unique opportunity." Charles Schwab, for example, has given the Web a central role in the future of its business, and enlisted Talk City to help create that role. One way Talk City did this was to create online communities where Schwab can educate its customers, and where customers can share information and interact with featured experts. Because of restrictions by government regulatory agencies, certain types of information-such as discussion of penny stocks and posts with a "promissory" tone"-are not allowed. To address this concern, Talk City developed a dedicated team to learn all of Schwab's rules, then developed specific processes to monitor discussion boards and block any "illegal" posts. Other financial services clients have worked with Talk City to conduct interactive market research around online business development and customer satisfaction. When Fidelity Investments wanted to measure client satisfaction with its products and services, Talk City responded by creating an entirely new version of its web survey tool that ensured users' trading activities would not be disrupted. The information resulting from the customized survey provided Fidelity with critical information to improve its customer service. While financial services companies previously relied on their technology to win and keep customers, the percentage of tech-savvy users is rapidly shrinking. As more traditional consumers, who are less familiar with the Internet, begin using online financial services, companies will need to provide customers with the personal service they've grown accustomed to offline. Talk City combines the customer management expertise and technological savvy to address these demands so financial companies can build and retain profitable customer relationships. On May 3, 2000, Talk City, Inc. reported revenue of $3.5 million for its first quarter ended March 31, 2000, a 261% increase over revenue of $980,000 in the first quarter a year ago. The Company currently has signed orders for additional revenue it expects to recognize over the next four quarters totaling in excess of $12 million. Talk City also announced that, based on its current revenue, expense trends and cash reserves, it expects to reach profitability in the fourth quarter of next year. The Company's cash and other investments at March 31, 2000 were more than $43 million. Sales of the Company's core business services offerings, which include online market research, live events, and custom-hosted online community services, were $1.6 million, up 340% from $357,000 in the first quarter last year, and up 22% from $1.3 million in the fourth quarter of 1999. Business services represented 44% of revenue for the quarter, compared with 36% in the first quarter a year ago and 39% in the prior sequential quarter. Advertising and sponsorship revenue was $2.0 million, up 215% from $623,000 in the same quarter last year. Net loss for the quarter, excluding non-cash advertising and goodwill amortization, was $9.1 million, or a net loss of $.37 per share, bettering analysts' estimates. This compares to a net loss of $5.5 million, or a pro forma net loss of $.37 per share for the year ago period and to a net loss of $8.5 million, or a pro forma net loss of $.36 per share, for the fourth quarter of 1999. On July 27, 2000, Talk City, Inc. renewed its contract with WebTV Networks, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp., for providing OEM-branded access to Talk City's more than 6 million Internet users in highly-segmented, well-managed online communities. The deal is estimated to be worth about $3 million. Talk City's outsourced network services provide leading Internet sites with unique, high-value community programming that results in lower customer acquisition costs, as well as higher customer retention. Talk City's community programming also targets mainstream demographics, who in turn create compelling advertising, market research and other marketing service venues for advertisers. ``One of our goals is to expand on the traditional role of the television and create an entirely new viewing experience,'' said Bruce Leak, president and CEO of WebTV. ``We are very pleased with Talk City's chat services that allow our members to connect with each other, and make WebTV the most useful communication and entertainment tool in the home.'' Talk City began providing live event and chat programming to Web TV Networks in 1997. Since then, the relationship has evolved as a model for outsourced Internet services. Web TV is a great example of the services and capabilities that Talk City offers to over 60 partner sites. Analysts estimate that the content provider sector will grow as much as 400% by 2003. Talk City expects to be profitable by the 4th quarter next year. The company is debt free and has cash reserves of $43 million. The Stockprowler.com software/database has been showing moderate to heavy patterns of accumulation for the past month. TCTY closed up Friday at 1 5/8 on 128,900 shares traded. Good trading... Stockprowler |
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