STOCKS TO WATCH: Bluefly, Digital Island, E-Stamp and Scient

Bluefly will likely be hammered Thursday after it missed analysts' estimates in its third quarter.

Bluefly lost $3.3 million, or 71 cents a share, on sales of $873,000. Its shares closed up 13/16 to 10 3/4 ahead of the earnings report.

First Call consensus expected it to lose 41 cents a share in the quarter.

The $873,000 in sales was a marked improvement compared to the $4,000 in sales it recorded in the year-ago quarter. In that quarter, it lost $625,000, or 23 cents a share.

In the quarter, Bluefly grew its registered user base from 85,000 in the year-ago quarter to 190,000 users.

Bluefly shares moved up to a 52-week high of 24 1/2 in December after trading at 3 1/2 last November.

Both analysts following the stock maintain a "buy" rating.

First Call consensus expects it to lose $1.99 a share in the fiscal year.

Digital Island may rally after it beat Street estimates in its fourth quarter, losing $22 million, or 62 cents a share, on sales of $4.9 million.

First Call consensus expected it to lose 66 cents a share in the quarter. .

Fourth quarter revenue increased to $4.9 million, a 33 percent gain sequentially and 433 percent improvement year-over-year. During the quarter, Digital Island boosted its customer total by 37 percent to 111, said Ruann F. Ernst, president and CEO.

"This has been a tremendous period of growth for Digital Island and we are very excited about the market opportunity before us." Ernst said.

For the full fiscal 1999, Digital Island reported a loss of $50.9 million, or $1.70 per share, on revenue of $12.4 million.

Digital Island recently announced plans to issue about 27 million shares to buy Sandpiper Networks.

Digital Island shares gained 11 3/4 to 73 ahead of the earnings report.

E-Stamp shares will be on the rise Thursday after Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette initiated coverage of the stock with a "buy" recommendation late Wednesday.

On Tuesday, E-Stamp posted a third-quarter loss of $15.2 million, or 65 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.7 million, or 12 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

E-Stamp shares closed off 1/8 to 27 1/4 ahead of the announcement.

Scient said late Wednesday that its board of directors approved a 2-for-1 stock split. Its shares closed off 11 1/4, or 8 percent, to 126 7/16.

Scient officials said the split will take affect Dec. 3 for all shareholders of record on Nov. 15.

After the split, Scient will have more than 70 million shares of common stock outstanding.

In its latest quarter, Scient beat Street estimates, posting a loss of $1.6 million, or 4 cents a share, on sales of $30.8 million.

First Call consensus expected Scient to lose 6 cents a share in the quarter.

The stock split comes on the eve of the company's first analyst conference in San Francisco.

Shortly after its initial public offering in May, Scient shares fell to a low of 27 3/4 before rallying up to a high of 145 in October.

Analysts expected the San Francisco company to lose 4 cents a share in the third quarter and 18 cents a share in the fiscal year.

All eight analysts tracking the stock maintain either a "buy" or "strong buy" recommendation.