Monday, January 30, 2012

What's Going On With STEM?

Wednesday, 25 Jan 02012: closed at $0.80; volume ~= trailing-3-month avg. of 318,621

Thursday, 26 Jan 02012: closed at $0.90; volume 2,186,500

Friday, 27 Jan 02012: closed at $1.06; volume 5,245,200

Monday, 30 Jan 02012 (prior to market opening): StemCells, Inc. Announces Publication of Preclinical Data Demonstrating Its Human Neural Stem Cells Preserve Vision... STEM opened up three cents at $1.09, but down 3.5% 15 minutes into trading. Volume is already two-times trailing-3-month average.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Sold Some Illumina

That "go on take the money and run" lyric got stuck in my head this morning and it prompted me to sell some ILMN shares at $52.20 per share. The Illumina situation has gotten too complicated for me, so I sold a tiny number of shares that were bought 7.5 years ago. The shares were in an IRA, so I'm not doing any running. Even if the cash I took out of our Illumina investment was readily available, it would only pay for about five nights of running. Note: The sold shares had appreciated 331%.

Will 02012 Be a Good Year For Stem Cell Stocks?

StemCells (STEM) had a good yesterday (02012.01.26), but I don't know why. STEM opened at $0.81 (up a penny) and hit an intra-day high of $0.93 before closing at $0.90. Volume was 9x the trailing-3-month average.

I started writing this prior to the market opening today (02012.01.27) and I wanted to post it before the market opened, but I waited because I noticed that our other stem cell stock, Aastrom Biosciences (ASTM), was up in pre-market trading.

At the open on 02012.01.27, ASTM spiked from $2.00 to $2.09 and STEM spiked from $0.90 to $1.02.

In a nutshell (it's a nutshell because it's all I know), it appears as though investors are getting increasingly bullish on how well the stem cell industry can do this year.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Altair Nanotechnologies is a Battery Company

Altair Nanotechnologies (ALTI) was a penny stock that did a reverse stock split to not be a penny stock that is now again a penny stock. Yesterday (02012.01.25) ALTI closed at $0.62. In addition, these days 51% of Altairnano is owned by a Chinese company.

The following was in this year's State of the Union Address.

"I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here." -- President Barack Obama

Altair Nanotechnologies is a battery company.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

US Airways and Yahoo! Report 4Q'11 Results

US Airways (LCC) reported a 4Q'11 profit. Chairman and CEO Doug Parker stated, "We are very pleased to report a profit for both the fourth quarter and full year of 2011, particularly given the extraordinarily high cost of jet fuel. [...] Looking forward, we are encouraged by the continued strength in demand and believe US Airways is well positioned for success in 2012 and beyond." LCC closed yesterday (02012.01.24) at $6.41 and they reported 4Q'11 results prior to the market opening today.

Yahoo! (YHOO) closed yesterday at $15.69 and then it reported 4Q'11 results. During 4Q'11 Yahoo! repurchased 27 million shares for $416 million ($15.41 per YHOO share). For the year (02011) Yahoo! repurchased 110 million shares for $1.619 billion ($14.72 per YHOO share). There are currently approximately 1,282,282,000 YHOO shares.

I have started reading the transcript from Yahoo!'s conference call and it starts with CEO Scott Thompson saying, "Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. For those of you who are counting, it's been 3 weeks since I arrived and only 2 weeks since my official start date." And of course Thompson had to say the following: "We're not in a position today to provide you with a roadmap or timetable for that effort, but we will be aggressive and plan to update you on our next earnings call."

From what I can tell the conference call did not include any discussion about the size of Yahoo!'s workforce. It is possible that there are too many Yahoos at Yahoo!

Hmm... Apple Inc., which is not a GDT::Portfolio stock, reported quarterly results yesterday. Apple ended 02011 with $97.6 billion in cash. Hey Apple... Want to buy Yahoo!?

SeekingAlpha.com::Yahoo!'s CEO Discusses Q4 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Illumina Gets a Hostile Bid

Illumina (ILMN) in the news this morning. Headline: "The Swiss drug maker Roche Holding made a $5.7 billion hostile bid on Tuesday (02012.01.24) for Illumina."
“Roche’s all-cash offer of $44.50 per share represents full and fair value for Illumina,” Severin Schwan, Roche’s chief executive, said in a statement, “and we expect that Illumina’s shareholders will welcome the opportunity to sell their shares at a significant premium to current market prices.”

I disagree with Roche's CEO. $44.50 per share would be stealing the company. Let's start the bidding at ILMN's 52-week high of $79.40.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Some Google Analytics

At the end of 4Q'08, Google had $24.5 billion in cash and 19,835 Googlers. At the end of 4Q'11, Google had $44.6 billion in cash and 32,467 Googlers. During this three year span Google had capital expenditures of $7.151 billion ($2.38 billion per year). GOOG ended 02008 at $307.65. On Friday, 02012.01.20, the day after Google reported 4Q'11 results, GOOG closed at $585.99, down 8.38% for the day. From 4Q'08 to 4Q'11, GOOG is up almost 91%. During the same span of time Google's cash position has increased 82% and its workforce has increased by almost 64%. From 02008 to 02011, Google's yearly revenues have increased 74%.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Spire Stays Listed, But...

Spire (SPIR) is moving from The Nasdaq Global Market to The Nasdaq Capital Market. SPIR must still not be penny stock in order to stay listed on the Nasdaq, but the $10 million market value is now moot.

I blogged the following on 02012.01.09.

Spire (SPIR) issued the following press release on 02012.01.06: Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement, Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy. Spire is in violation of two Nasdaq Marketplace Rules: the "Minimum Bid Price Rule" and the "Minimum Public Market Value Rule." At $0.69 (which is under a buck) has a market value of $5.8 million (which is under $10 million). The Spire press release ended with: "The Company is considering its alternatives at this time." Duh! A reverse split gets the stock price above $1, but it doesn't do anything to improve the company's market value.

SPIR closed yesterday (02012.01.19) at $1.05.

Capstone Therapeutics: The Drugless Drug Company

Woke up this morning and was greeted with this headline: "Capstone Therapeutics Announces Operational Update via GlobeNewswire at 08:00am EST". Time to hold my breath while click this hyperlink: Capstone Therapeutics Announces Operational Update

In a nutshell, Capstone is a drugless drug company. From the press release... "Capstone will cease clinical development of AZX100..." and "[The company] will cease all activities related to the development of TP508..." and because of legal reasons they cannot distribute cash to shareholders. The company's current cash position was not contained in the press release. [Qui Tam cases are lawsuits filed on behalf of the government by private citizens for false claims or fraud. via AttorneyPages.com]

CAPS.PK closed at $0.27 on 02012.01.19.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Here Come the Quarterly Results

It's an exciting day today (02012.01.19) because IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Google are reporting quarterly results.These four computing companies have a combined market value of $785.17 billion. For comparison purposes, the combined market values of Apple and Exxon Mobil is $813.19 billion.

IBM=$213.41B; INTC=$129.29B; MSFT=$237.48B; GOOG=$204.99B; AAPL=$398.82B; XOM=$414.37B

Update: 02012.01.20

During 4Q'11, Google had $2.97 billion free cash flow; spent $951 million expanding their infrastructure and increased its workforce by 1,114 Googlers. Yet, Google lost almost 10% of its market value immediately after they reported the 4Q'11 results because they did not "meet expectations."

During 4Q'11, IBM generated free cash flow of $9.0 billion.

During 02011, Intel returned $18 billion to shareholders via dividends and stock buybacks.

And then there is Microsoft. The company "finished 2Q'12 with $51.7 billion in cash; they bought back $1 billion in stock, paid out $1.7 billion in dividends, and spent $8.5 billion to buy Skype. The company had $46 billion of the cash overseas."

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Jerry Yang Leaves Yahoo!

Yahoo! Announces Resignation of Jerry Yang YHOO closed yesterday (02012.01.17) at $15.43. YHOO is up 3% in pre-market trading at 6:15am EST on 02012.01.18. I'm okay with Yang leaving the board, but I not happy that he will no longer be a Chief Yahoo!. I'd sell all of our YHOO shares at $26 right now if given an opportunity, but there is no way I'm selling them at its current price.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Nanosphere and Spire Have a Solid Friday the 13th

It wasn't a good Friday the 13th for the GDT::Portfolio, but there were two exceptions: Nanosphere and Spire.

Nanosphere (NSPH) closed at $1.74, up 7.41% on 02012.01.13 (Friday the 13th). NSPH hit an intra-day high of $1.79. Our NSPH holding is underwater, but the shares we bought for a $1 on 02011.09.29 are up 74% in the span of 3.5 months.

On 02012.01.09 I blogged about Spire (SPIR) being in violation of two Nasdaq Marketplace Rules: the "Minimum Bid Price Rule" and the "Minimum Public Market Value Rule." At the time, SPIR was at $0.69 and that price gave the company has a market value of $5.8 million. I noted that a reverse stock split would get the stock price above a buck, but that would do anything to change Spire's market value that needs to be a minimum of $10 million. Because I decided to turn this into some math fodder, I went head an calcuated that SPR needs to be priced at around $1.19 in order to stay listed. On 02012.01.13 (Friday the 13th) SPIR closed at $0.92, up 27.23% for the day. For the week SPIR was up 33.33%.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Axion Power Doubles and Geeknet Does Star Wars

Axion Power International (AXPW.OB) ended 02011 at $0.27. Today (02012.01.11), on 02012's 7th day of trading, AXPW.OB hit $0.56. I am not celebrating the quick double because our AXPW.OB holding is still underwater.

Geeknet (GKNT) is one stock that I would celebrate if it were to double in seven days of trading. I sure hope people are buying this crap. Investors.Geek.net::ThinkGeek Boldy Ushers in New Star Trek(TM) Collectibles In addition, when I visited the Geeknet's homepage at Geek.net I noticed that Freshmeat.net is now Freecode.com. GKNT closed yesterday (02012.01.10) at $16.86.

Illumina and Life Technologies: Genomes in a Day

Yesterday (02012.01.10) was quite a day for genomic stocks. Illumina (ILMN) previous close was $31.82. It opened down at $29.57 and fell to an intra-day low of $28.72, then it climbed to an intra-day high of $33.84 before closing at $33.01. Volume was almost 13 million compared to a trailing-3-month average of 2.8 million. The news? Life Technologies Corp. and Illumina Inc. unveiled rival genetic-sequencing machines that both say can map a person’s genome in a single day.

Life Technologies is not a GDT::Portfolio stocks, but Illumina is. Illumina.com::Illumina Introduces the HiSeq 2500

Forbes.com::Biotech Firms Battle Over Same Day Genomes

Monday, January 9, 2012

Good News, Bad News? Axion Power and Spire

Axion Power Intl. (AXPW.OB) ended 02011 at $0.27. On 02012.01.04 the company issued the following press release: Axion Power Chosen for Battery Mini Power Cube in Zero Energy Building in Washington DC Naval Yard.
Axion Power Chairman & CEO Thomas Granville commented, "Although this is a small project, in terms of dollars and number of batteries, it is a significant step forward because [...]

AXPW.OB closed Friday (02012.01.06) at $0.41.

Spire (SPIR) issued the following press release on 02012.01.06: Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement, Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy. Spire is in violation of two Nasdaq Marketplace Rules: the "Minimum Bid Price Rule" and the "Minimum Public Market Value Rule." At $0.69 (which is under a buck) has a market value of $5.8 million (which is under $10 million). The Spire press release ended with: "The Company is considering its alternatives at this time." Duh! A reverse split gets the stock price above $1, but it doesn't do anything to improve the company's market value.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Bought MACE; Yahoo! Gets New CEO; GOOG 52-Week High

I spent the first week of 02012 out of town and didn't look at stocks until today (Saturday, 02012.01.07). Week #1 of 02012 in a nutshell: Dud.

On 02012.01.03, the first day of trading in 02012, I bought some more Mace Security Intl. (MACE) at $0.20 per share. I wrote the following prior to leaving town on 02012.01.02.

Mace Security Intl. (MACE) is a penny stock that might not end up hitting $0. Nasdaq.com::InsiderTrades::MACE

On 02011.12.19, Mace issued a press release announcing the hiring of a new CEO. Mace Security International, Inc. Announces Appointment of John J. McCann as Chief Executive Officer.

MACE ended 02011 at $0.19. Balance sheet shows $0.12 per share in cash; minimal debt; 2.56 current ratio. At current price the stock has a 0.64 PSR (Price-Sales-Ratio).

On 02012.01.04, Yahoo! (YHOO) issued this press release: Yahoo! Appoints Scott Thompson Chief Executive Officer. YHOO ended 02011 at $16.13 and is at $15.52 after the first week of 02012.

On 02012.01.04, Google (GOOG) hit a new 52-high of $670.25. There are good chances GOOG hit $666.66 at least once on both 02012.01.03 and 02012.01.04.