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The last
trading day of February concludes yet another month of market
losses. It’s hard to even remember when the market showed a
positive gain for an entire month (last August if anyone can
remember back that far).
However,
even in this bear market it’s important to remember that there
are stocks that are performing quite well. In fact, the internet
sector alone produced nine different stocks with double-digit
gains in the month of February.
So who
were the biggest winners?
Shutterfly
Shutterfly
ended the month up 21.5% after posting strong than expected
fourth quarter results. Revenues of $107.7 million easily topped
analyst expectations of $96.7 million. While management did
indicate that 2009 could bring possible revenue declines, the
market was expecting the outlook to be much worse.
Sohu
Sohu.com
reported another strong quarter to finish off an impressive
2008. However, investors were most impressed with the company’s
first quarter 2009 guidance of 31-36% y/y growth. Sohu shares
finished the month up 24.9%.
Priceline
Our third
big winner also benefited from better than expected earnings
results. Gross booking rose 23% driven by strong domestic
demand. The company’s guidance for 2009 also exceeded consensus
expectations despite the company’s penchant for providing
conservative estimates. The positive news pushed the stock up
26.5% for the month.
Travel Zoo
The
biggest winner for the month was Travel Zoo – posting an
impressive 38.7% gain. Travel Zoo’s long-suffering investors
have watched the stock fall from the mid-$90’s to less than $4
per share as the company invested heavily into expanding their
business into Europe and Asia-Pacific. However, the company’s
fourth quarter performance showed that they are reigning back on
their international investments and taking a serious look at
their cost structure.
At the time this article was published, the author did not have
a financial position in any of the stocks mentioned in this
article.
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