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 CheckFree could be the closest thing to a sure bet
I love CheckFree Holdings (CKFR-NASDQ). A way to play the Internet, CheckFree trades at a market cap of US$2.5 billion on trailing-twelve-month revenues of US$262 million. That's a price-to-revenues ratio of 9.5, not bad for an Internet stock.
CheckFree continues to grow the top line quarter to quarter. Recently, the company had revenues of US$70.8 million for the 4Q99 vs. US$63.5 million for the same period a year ago. Total revenues for the quarter increased 19% over the 4Q98. Revenues for the year were US$250 million, up 21% over the prior year.
CheckFree's net income for the quarter was US$2.8 million, or US$0.05 per diluted share, vs. US$0.03 per diluted share for the same period in fiscal 1998.
Also, the company continues to enjoy relationships with more than 350 financial institutions, including nine of the top 10 and 23 of the top 25. Major retail brokerage firms -- including market heavyweights Schwab and Merrill Lynch -- are in the market with Internet services, and are offering their customers electronic billing and payment solutions powered by CheckFree services.
CheckFree processed more than 125 million transactions in 1999, up from just under 100 million in 1998, and the company exited the year with a processing run rate of more than 12 million transactions per month.
CheckFree signed contracts for electronic billing and payment services with 43 billers during the year, two-and-one half times as many as the company signed last year.
CheckFree now has contracts with 64 of the nation's top billers, and 29 of these enable their customers to receive and pay bills on the Internet today.
As a pure play on electronic bill payment and presentment over the Internet, I rate CheckFree a strong buy under $40 a share.
 VISX is still the monster of the laser vision correction market
VISX (VISX-NASDAQ) announced revenue for the third quarter of 1999 was US$79,668,000, compared to US$35,844,000 for the same period in 1998 --representing a 122% increase.
Net income for the company was US$24,743,000. This is another increase compared to the previous year at US$14,732,000 -- posting a bottom-line growth rate of 68%.
With the one-millionth VISX procedure completed in the United States, revenues in the third quarter shows the strength of VISX's unique business model.
I consider VISX to be still one of the best growth stocks in the market. Trading at a market cap of US$4.3 billion on revenues of US$238 million, VISX trades at a price-to-revenues ratio of 18. And the trailing-twelve-month revenues of US$238 million is up 78% from 1998's revenues of US$133 million.
But listen to this number: VISX's TTM net profit is US$83 million -- up 225% from 1998's net profit of US$25.5 million.
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