Another one from the Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street this week.

[randomness]

Friday's article had this as item 4:

"Shares of online publisher Travelzoo (TZOO:NYSE) closed above $100 for the first time Tuesday, and they traded even higher on Wednesday."

...

"Thus, Travelzoo -- a company that had net income of $4.4 million on $23.2 million in sales in the first nine months of the year -- is trading at about 250 times estimated 2004 earnings. It enjoys a market capitalization of $1.7 billion.

"How crazy is that? Well, for the $1.7 billion it would take to buy the Web site -- which lists cheap airfares and other travel bargains -- you could buy three actual airlines themselves.

"Yes, you'd have enough money to buy Continental (CAL:NYSE), Delta (DAL:NYSE) and Independence (FLYI:Nasdaq). Not only that, you'd have enough money left over -- at least $100 million -- to pay Bill Gates an hourly wage to make your own travel-bargain Web site from scratch.

"Frankly, doing that makes about as much sense as paying 250 times earnings for anything."

(Note from me: TZOO did close below $100 today, at $98.89, after a pullback on Thursday and Friday. The company's market cap is still about a billion and a half dollars.)

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Being a mathematician by training, I humbly submit to your correction.