Stock Watch: Verio Benefits Greatly from Coverage

Shares of Verio (Nasdaq: VRIO), which provides Web-hosting and e-commerce services for small businesses, rocketed forty percent on Friday, closing up 19 to an all-time high of 66-1/2 after DLJ upgraded the stock from a buy to a top pick. DLJ set a price target of $75 (US$) a share of Verio.

The question now is how long it's going to take Verio to get to that point, and whether it could be this week. The momentum surrounding Verio is continuing in early trading today, with shares of Verio up 1-1/2 to 68.

Verio stock has been on a tear recently, rising more than 100 percent in a little more than a month. The stock was trading at 32-1/2 on March 4, before Verio announced a deal to become the exclusive business Web-hosting partner for America Online.

The AOL deal reportedly entails Verio paying $42.5 million or more to America Online, plus sharing a percentage of revenues. In exchange, nearly 7,000 AOL PrimeHost and CompuServe BusinessWeb hosting customers are being transitioned over to Verio for continued Web-hosting service.