STOCKS TO WATCH: Computer Horizons, EBay and Yahoo!

The computer consulting firm said Wednesday it would miss analysts' estimates in its second quarter and in the fiscal year because of a greater-than-anticipated market slowdown.

It now expects to return a profit of between 23 cents to 25 cents a share in its second quarter, considerably lower than the 31 cents a share predicted by a survey of analysts for First Call Corp.

It also expects its fiscal 1999 earnings to fall between 85 cents a share to $1 a share, well below the First Call estimate of $1.27 a share.

The company said it expects second-quarter sales to improve between 10 and 14 percent and yearly revenues to be in the range of $520 million to $565 million.

"Our clients have been slower in their IT commitments, stretching out what we had anticipated to be a compensating balance in margins for the continued erosion of Y2K business," said CEO John Cassese in a prepared release.

Computer Horizons will release its second-quarter results July 20.

Computer Network warned Wednesday it would report a smaller-than-expected profit in its second quarter.

Company officials said the customer order delays were responsible for the sales and earnings shortfall.

Computer Network Technology now expects a profit of 7 cents a share on sales of $38 million.

First Call consensus pegged the Minneapolis-based developer of enterprise hardware and software to earn 11 cents a share in the quarter.

Last quarter, it topped analysts' estimates by 2 cents a share, earning $2.7 million, or 11 cents a share, on sales of $36.9 million.

Its shares hit a 52-week high of 30 5/8 in May after falling to a low of 3 ? in October.

All five analysts following the stock rate it either a "buy" or "strong buy."

In the year-ago quarter, it posted a profit of 4 cents a share on sales of $33.5 million.

Investors and analysts are predicting that eBay will report its first quarter later this month without profit from operations, its only profit being generated by interest income on its recent stock offering, according to a Thursday report in the Wall Street Journal.

This is just more bad news for the online auctioneer that has experienced several power outages over the last two months, prompting speculation on the company's ability to handle its growth.

There's not much more than can be asked of Yahoo!.

On Wednesday, it hurdled analysts' estimates in its second quarter, returning a profit of $28.2 million, or 11 cents a share, on sales of $115.2 million. Its shares closed off 8 1/16 to 167 1/16 ahead of the earnings report.

First Call consensus expected Yahoo! to earn 8 cents a share in the quarter.

The $115.2 million in sales represents a 156 percent jump compared to the year-ago quarter when it made $1.4 million, or 1 cent a share, on sales of $44.9 million.

The second-quarter results were the first to include its pricey acquisitions of both GeoCites Inc. and Broadcast.com Inc.

More impressive, Yahoo!'s registered user base jumped to 65 million users in the quarter and its average daily page views surged to 310 million in June.

"During the second quarter, we expanded our audience, our extensive global presence, the content and services we offer, the platforms and devices on which they are delivered, and the marketing programs we offer our customers," said CEO Tim Koogle in a prepared release.

Yahoo! shares moved up 1 11/16 in after-hours trading.

In March, Yahoo! reported 235 million average page views.

Including the costs of merging all these acquisitions, Yahoo! reported a net loss of $15 million, or 7 cents a share compared to a net loss of $14.2 million, or 8 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Most analysts predicted Yahoo! would record sales of between $100 million to $115 million.