It is only the fund managers who get to have their earnings taxed at a lower rate because they earned them on a commission.
"When you get to 60 times earnings, that's pretty hard to justify even if the company is growing fast," Mr. Auriana said.
"Once we get past the Fed meeting and the transfer of power in Iraq, and we get to second-quarter earnings, at least I'll have something to hang my hat on.
"The closer we get to completing the earnings preannouncement period the more likely it is that there will be a base in some of these technology stocks for at least another quarter," said Rick Meckler, a senior managing director at Liberty Asset Management, which oversees $1 billion.
Because the cash on the balance sheet is so important to the thesis, we may be overestimating how quickly they can get to that normal earnings level, but given all the reasons we like the stock, we're comfortable giving it a target price of $17.
In fact, a complicated CRUT tax regime forces them to take ordinary income first and then capital gains before they can get to any tax-free earnings.
After looking at all sectors of the S&P Index and the big-capitalization stocks within each sector, I get to $80 for 2009 earnings but not much lower, because there are significant stable earners among many big-cap properties: Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, IBM and Exxon Mobil.
"Our companies have got to have earnings, which leaves us out of a lot of I.P.O.'s and dot-coms," he said.
"At the end of the day they have got to generate earnings from loans and sales, and that's just not happening," said Braddock.
But at least the people get to keep almost all their earnings.
