Monday, October 31, 2011

Bruker (BRKR) Reports 3Q'11 Results

Bruker (BRKR) reported 3Q'11 results prior to the market opening on Thursday, 02011.10. 27. BRKR closed at $14.62 on the 26th, spiked to an intra-day high of $15.70 on the 27th and ended the week at $14.53 on the 28th. 52-week range: $12.15 - $21.65.
Operating cash flow for the third quarter of 2011 was $21.2 million compared to $9.6 million in the comparable period of 2010. Free cash flow was $14.0 million during the third quarter of 2011 compared to use of cash of $1.2 million during the comparable period of 2010. We ended the third quarter of 2011 with cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash of $198.8 million and in net debt of $112.6 million.

I found the following comment especially positive... Frank Laukien (President and Chief Executive Officer): "We believe that Bruker can continue to grow considerably faster than our market even in a slowing macro environment."

I think the 3Q'11 conference call gets interesting near its end...

SeekingAlpha.com::Bruker Corporation's CEO Discusses Q3 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Saturday, October 29, 2011

29 October 01929

It was 82 years ago today when Wall Street crashed; thus, giving birth to the Great Depression.
01928.10.01: 240.01 [1st date provided by Finance.Yahoo.com]
...
01928.12.31: 300.00 [end of 01928]
...
01929.05.21: 314.09 [almost hecto-Pi]
...
01929.09.03: 381.17 [highest value since 01928.10.01]
...
01929.10.25: 301.22 [Friday; down 21% since high on 01929.09.03]
01929.10.28: 260.64 [Monday; down 13.5% for the day]
01929.10.29: 230.07 [Tuesday; down 11.7% for the day]
01929.10.30: 258.47 [Wednesday; up 12.3% for the day]
01929.10.31: 273.51 [Thursday; up 5.8% for the day]
... Why no Friday? ...
01929.11.04: 257.68 [Monday]
...
01932:07.08: 41.22 [all-time low]

On 02011.10.29 the DJIA was at 12,231.11. In other words, since its all-time low of 41.22 reached on 01932.07.08 (i.e. 28,967 days ago [79 years, 3 months, 21 days]), the DJIA has increased 29,572.8%. [Approximately 7.433% per year?]

Friday, October 28, 2011

Hanger Orthopedic (HGR) Needs a Uncertainty Prosthetic

Hanger Orthopedic (HGR), the longest held stock in the GDT::Portfolio, reported 3Q'11 results and the shares got hammered on 02011.10.27. HGR closed at $17.84, down almost 16% for the day. 52-week range: $16.33 - $28.47. Trading volume on 02011.10.27 was 2.289 million shares versus a trailing-3-month average of 0.351 million. HGR, which trades on the NYSE, was down almost 16% on a day when the DJIA was up 2.86%‎.

Hanger Orthopedic reported solid 3Q'11 results, but (that damn "but") the company had to "revise" downward 02011 EPS (Earnings Per Share) guidance. Here are the killer words from Hanger's press release.

"While we are pleased with our third quarter results, we experienced increased pressure on sales volumes and operating margin this quarter compared to the first half of the year, which we attribute to the cumulative weakness in the national economy, persistent high unemployment, uncertainty in the minds of our customers on the impact of health care reforms and state governments looking for ways to cover budget shortfalls." -- Thomas F. Kirk, CEO

Hanger.com::Hanger Orthopedic Group Reports Earnings of $0.45 Per Diluted Share for the Third Quarter 2011

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Red Hat (RHT) Hits a New 52-Week High

Red Hat (RHT) hit a new 52-week today (02011.10.27) and it's been a while since a GDT::Portfolio stock (excluding Amazon.com) hit a new 52-week high. In addition, RHT hitting $50.61 today allowed me to finish writing The Case of the Accidental Triple.

RHT started trading on 11 Aug 01999 at $27.25 (adjusted for 2:1 split on 10 Jan 02000). It hit $143.12 on 9 Sep 01999. On 11 Aug 02000, one year after it started trading, RHT was at $20.06. Right now (at 2:33pm EDT on 27 Oct 02011) RHT is at $51.28 (i.e. 64% below it's all-time high of $143.12). The last time RHT was this high was on 28 Mar 02000.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

iRobot (IRBT) Reports 3Q'11 Results

iRobot (IRBT) reported 3Q'11 results after the market closed on 02011.10.25. IRBT closed at $28.30. 52-week range: $19.18 - $39.00. The following is from iRobot's 3Q'11 press release.
“Our third quarter and year-to-date results were excellent across all measures and far exceeded our expectations,” said Colin Angle, chairman and chief executive officer of iRobot. “Due to strong performance by both divisions and our expectations for the fourth quarter, we are increasing our full-year 2011 expectations for the second time this year.”

Xconomy.com::iRobot Lays Off About 55 Staff in Advance of Q3 Earnings Report. From the Xconomy.com posting.

"We can confirm that iRobot Corporation has had a reduction in force. This difficult action was taken based on our current view of future defense spending and a shift in program structure."

NASDAQ.com::IRBT Short Interest appears high to me given ~12% of IRBT is closely held with "institutions and mutual funds" owning ~67% of the float.

[update::2011.10.26] http://seekingalpha.com/article/302333-irobot-s-ceo-discusses-q3-2011-earnings-call-transcript?source=yahoo

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Amazon.com (AMZN) Reports 3Q'11 Results

Amazon.com (AZMN) was tanking in after-hours trading after the company reported 3Q'11 results. I like how Amazon.com starts every quarterly report by first reporting cash flows and then shares outstanding. The 3Q'11 report started with the following.
Operating cash flow increased 19% to $3.11 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $2.62 billion for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2010. Free cash flow decreased 17% to $1.53 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $1.83 billion for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2010.

Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 469 million on September 30, 2011, compared with 465 million a year ago.

Investors appear unhappy with Amazon.com's 3Q'11 results. After Hours: $195.62 Down -$31.53 (-13.88%) 4:27PM EDT on 02011.10.25. 52-week range: $156.77 - $246.71

Illumina (ILMN) Reports 3Q'11 Results

Illumina (ILMN) reported back on 02011.10.06 that 3Q'11 results were going to be disappointing. The Stocks::Stuffer posting on 02011.10.07 started with the following: Illumina (ILMN) is down 32% this morning after the company announced that the future is farther away than expected. ILMN snap shot on 02011.10.07: $27.38 Down $12.55 (-31.43%) 10:21AM EDT. Yesterday, 02011.10.24, ILMN closed at $28.72. Today, 02011.10.25, prior to the markets opening, Illumina reported the disappointing 3Q'11 results and here some notes from the company's 3Q'11 press release.

"generated $90.0 million in cash flow from operations during the third quarter of 2011 compared to $54.8 million in the prior year period"

"ended the third quarter of 2011 with $1.1 billion in cash [...]"

"Repurchased $204.0 million of common stock [...]" But how many ILMN shares?

"Research and development (R&D) expenses for the third quarter of 2011 were $50.4 million compared to $44.8 million in the third quarter of 2010." But... "Revenue of $235.5 million, a 1% decrease compared to the $237.3 million in the third quarter of 2010."

Sign of the times...

"Given the uncertainties associated with academic and government research funding and the global economic environment, the company is implementing a restructuring to better align the company’s organization and cost structure. As a result, the company expects to record a restructuring charge of approximately $15-17 million, the majority of which will be recorded during the fourth quarter of 2011."

Sign of the times...

"As we indicated in our press release earlier this month, we believe that fourth quarter revenue will be higher than third quarter levels, as a result of the commercialization of the MiSeq platform. However, given the uncertainty surrounding budgets for government funding of research and development, the company is not providing further guidance at this time."

Illumina.com::3rd-Quarter 02011 Results

Monday, October 24, 2011

Level 3 Communications (LVLT); LookSmart (LOOK); Yahoo! (YHOO)

Level 3 Communications (LVLT) executed the 1:15 stock split and the shares are now trading on the NYSE. Prior to the reverse stock split LVLT was at $1.55. LVLT closed last week (02011.10.21) at $23.50. Post split 52-week range: $12.75 - $40.05

LookSmart (LOOK) continues to be a DumbAss investment, but at $1.28 it is selling below cash-per-share of $1.30.

Yahoo! (YHOO) rumors are running wild and rampant. YHOO closed last week (02011.10.21) at $16.12. 52-week range: $11.09 - $18.84.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Yahoo! (YHOO): Sink or Swim--I'm Holding

Yahoo! (YHOO) reported 3Q'11 results on 02011.10.018 and I thought they seemed okay. The following was copied from Yahoo!'s 3Q'11 press release.
  • Free cash flow was $247 million for the third quarter of 2011, a 1 percent decrease compared to $250 million for the same period of 2010.
  • Cash, cash equivalents, and investments in marketable debt securities were $2,870 million at September 30, 2011 compared to $3,629 million at December 31, 2010, a decrease of $759 million. During the third quarter of 2011, Yahoo! repurchased 44 million shares for $593 million. During the nine months ended September 30, 2011, Yahoo! repurchased 82 million shares for $1,203 million.

Bradley Horowitz, a VP at Google, said the following about Yahoo!: “The company is actually quite healthy. It’s not on the ropes, it’s not as if they don’t have traffic. They have number one sites in many categories."

Some Yahoo! related headlines from today (02011.10.20) and yesterday.

  • What is Yahoo? Still One of Life's Unanswerable Questions via AllThingsD
  • Yahoo Has More Options Than Sale of Company, Co-Founder Jerry Yang Says via Bloomberg
  • Alibaba’s Jack Ma Says He Is Interested in Buying Yahoo [old news] via Bloomberg
  • A $16 To $18 Private Equity Deal Would Undervalue Yahoo's Assets [I agree!] via Seeking Alpha

YHOO closed yesterday (02011.10.19) at $15.94. 52-week range: $11.09 - $18.84

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Nanosphere (NSPH): Insider Buy Recorded

I buzzed the following on 02011.09.28... Nanosphere (NSPH) hit a new 52-week low of $1.01 this morning (02011.09.28), which means it almost became a penny stock. 52-week range: $1.01 - $5.95. I don't know why the stock keeps falling; maybe its an end-of-quarter thing. Although there was lots of NSPH insider buying during the summer of this year, I'd like to see some more insider purchases right now.

I buzzed the following on 02011.10.10... Nanosphere (NSPH) saw a small amount if insider buying on 02011.10.03 (10,000 shares at $0.90) and 02011.09.30 (1,000 shares at $0.91, 3,370 shares at $0.97, and 30,000 shares in the $0.93-$1.01 range).

Today, 02011.10.19, I saw that Mark Slezak, Director, purchased (indirectly) 285,235 NSPH shares at $1.10 per share. NSPH was at $1.18 on 02011.10.19 at 1:22PM EDT. 52-week range: $0.89 - $5.95.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Geeknet (GKNT): Thin Float/High Short-Interest-Ratio

I'd like to see some more insider buying at Geeknet (GKNT). I have to believe that CEO Langone is extremely unhappy with GKNT at $18.36 (52-week range: $14.82 - $30.50). It appears as though Langone last bought some GKNT on 13 May 02011 when he bought 10,716 shares at $26.06 - $26.8 per share.

There are only 6.33 million GKNT shares and ~38% of them are closely held. The company has ~$25 million in cash with $0 of debt. I like these numbers because right now GKNT has a 13.8 short-interest-ratio (SIR). Thin float, high SIR.

The success of Geeknet is dependent on the success of ThinkGeek. The following are a couple of recent press releases from ThinkGeek.

Monday, October 17, 2011

hello, world

This blog is all about stocks. I had to start using this blogging tool because Google killed Google Buzz.

My Stocks::Stuffer blog was started on 19 May 02003. On 11 April 02010, the postings to the Stocks::Stuffer blog were hyperlinks to my stock related postings to my Google Buzz blog.

When this blog was created on 17 October 02011, the DJIA was at 11,644; S&P 500 was at 1225; and Nasdaq was at 2668.

Note: Postings to this blog use 5-digit years (e.g. 2011 is 02011 and next year is 02012).