12/25/95 TABLE: These Stocks May Endanger Your Financial Health

These Stocks May Endanger Your Financial Health

PRICE* 52-WEEK P-E HIGH RATIO AMC ENTERTAINMENT Feverish buying has driven shares of this 23 /4 28 1/4 12 theater operator up 126% for the year to date, but earnings are unlikely to hold up. AMERICA ONLINE The nation's premier online service is facing 40 1/8 46 1/4 NEG. ferocious competition from many sources. INFINITY BROADCASTING This high-flying radio broadcaster, 32 1/8 37 5/8 44 the home of ''shock jock'' Howard Stern, is $550 million in debt. McAFEE ASSOCIATES It's the Jonas Salk of antiviral software. But 47 1/4 52 7/8 91 have its innovations been overcompensated by the stock market? Critics say yes. NETCOM A pioneer in Internet-only online services, 52 1/2 91 1/2 NEG. NETCOM is a soaring recent IPO that, some analysts hold, is about to bump into the ceiling. NETSCAPE The premier IPO of recent years makes 136 1/2 174 NEG. Web-browser software. But its valuation is so steep that it goes through spasms when the Net market sneezes. NORTH AMERICAN VACCINE This company faces serious competition 13 1/2 14 NEG. in a tough, low-margin business. ORGANOGENESIS A favorite of short-sellers, this biotech 20 22 1/2 NEG. company is a leader in genetic engineering. But shorts deride its product. PRESSTEK This developer of color-printer technology 89 97 3/4 742 is the bane of short-sellers, who have been squeezed by ever-higher share prices. STARBUCKS A loaf of bread, a jug of coffee, and thou? 22 3/8 23 1/2 60 Yuppies love its brews, and so does the stock market. Maybe too much. *As of Dec. 12, 1995 DATA: BUSINESS WEEK