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It's quite common for the underwriters of an initial public offering to give that company favorable coverage. What isn't nearly as common is the type of bullish comments e-commerce solutions AppNet Systems received on Friday. Credit Suisse First Boston, the lead underwriter of AppNet's June IPO, upgraded the stock from buy to strong buy. Shares of AppNet climbed 17-1/4 to 33, a gain of nearly 113 percent on Friday.
The strong buy rating was one thing, but it seems like analyst Mark Wolfenberger's extremely bullish comments were what really boosted the stock. Wolfenberger said that AppNet was "way too cheap" and that the Internet business services sector is "on fire." And check out these next two lines from a Reuters report: Wolfenberger called the momentum of AppNet shares "atomic." He urged investors to "back up the truck" and load up on the shares. For his sake, let's hope he's right about the stock. People are going to remember this call, one way or the other.
Wolfenberger also raised his rating on e-commerce services company Viant (Nasdaq: VIAN) from buy to strong buy. Shares of Viant climbed 10-1/2 to 50. CS First Boston was a co-manager of Viant's June IPO.
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