Tread Carefully When You Buy Tracking Stocks

摘要

Tracking stocks are all the rage on Wall Street. AT&T, for instance, is about to roll out a tracking stock tied to the performance of its wireless unit in an initial public offering expected to raise $10 billion. A dozen other big corporations also have tracking stocks in the works, including Staples, New York Times, J.C. Penney, DuPont, and Cendant. These oddball equities are a class of common stock whose value is tied to a particular segment of a corporation's business. They are especially popular right now because they allow diversified companies to highlight a high-growth business in a hot stock-market sector.