Monday, April 30, 2012

Nanosphere... Good News?

I went to check stocks pre-market this morning (02012.04.30) and I read a press release titled: "Nanosphere Enters Into Marketing and Distribution Agreement in Europe With Thermo Fisher Scientific." Nanosphere (NSPH) is important GDT::Porfolio stock that is more underwater than I'd like it to be. NSPH closed Friday, 02012.04.27, at $1.67. I think the stock is undervalued when it's priced below $2. 52-week range: $0.89 - $3.04.
"We are excited to be working with the Nanosphere team to bring these innovative molecular diagnostic products to our customers for the first time. Together with our existing range of Thermo Scientific microbiology products, they provide a comprehensive solution to diagnosis of serious infectious disease." -- Thermo Fisher

Thermo Fisher Scientific does roughly $12 billion per year in revenue and has an approximate $20 billion market value. Nanosphere's market value is currently $73 million.

Nanosphere (NSPH) releases 1Q'12 results tomorrow (02012.05.01).

[update::02012.05.01] NSPH closed yesterday at $1.78, up 6.6% for the day. Trading volume was light.

[update::02012.05.01] Nanosphere released 1Q'12 results prior to the market opening today. 1Q'12 revenues were double those for 1Q'11 and these days Nanophere needs to generate some revenue. The company ended the quarter with ~$0.73 per share in cash. The number of shares outstanding at the end of 1Q'12 was ~58% higher than at the end of 1Q'11. Again, NSPH closed yesterday at $1.78.

"Our business has achieved an inflection point with new customer placements that will drive significant revenue growth in 2012," commented William Moffitt, Nanosphere's president and chief executive officer.

Friday, April 27, 2012

I Had Fun Selling Some CRAY This Morning

This was a first time experience...

On Wednesday (02012.04.25, two days ago) I placed a GTC limit order to sell some CRAY at $9.42. I didn't have a specific sell price, so I multiplied Pi by three and rounded it to the nearest penny to get $9.42.

Today, Friday (02012.04.27), the GTC limit order was executed at a sale price of $10.36.

Yesterday, Thursday (02012.04.26), CRAY closed at $8.90. Cray reported 1Q'12 results after the close. Today CRAY had a "gap open" and opened at $10.36.

$10.36 is almost a 10% increase over my Pi-based limit order price of $9.42.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Money Where Your Mouth Is

I've been giving a talk titled "Learning About the Future in 50 Minutes" and the talk spends quite a bit of time on the topics of High Performance Computing (HPC), 21st century Informatics, and robotics. When the markets closed yesterday (02012.04.25) the top three stocks in the GDT::Portfolio were Google #1, Cray #2, and iRobot #3 (i.e. Informatics, HPC, robotics).

Speaking of Cray... The company reports 1Q'12 results today (02012.04.26).

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

iRobot: Home, Military, Emerging Technologies

iRobot (IRBT) reported 1Q'12 results after the market closed yesterday. The company posted the transcript to their 1Q'12 conference call, so I gave it a read. It starts with the following.
"The results and outlook for our Home Robot business are excellent while the near-term visibility in our Defense & Security business continues to be limited."

I thought this was interesting...

"I [Colin Angle, iRobot CEO] have said in the past that one in four vacuum cleaners sold in Spain is a robot. Based on current data, that statistic is even more striking. Quarterly data through February showed that one in three vacuum cleaners sold in Spain was a robot. Beyond Spain, we see the same fast developing adoption in such diverse markets as Italy, Taiwan, Denmark, Israel and Russia. The robotic vacuum cleaner category is going mainstream and growing far faster than the overall vacuum cleaner market. The good news is that not only is the rate of adoption accelerating but our Roomba remains the market leader."

Reading the following prompted me to say... D'oh!

"We [iRobot] continue to experience funding delays that will impact Q2 revenue and we have reflected that impact in our expectations. We expect orders and funding to start flowing, but full-year results will be lower than we anticipated last quarter."

IRBT closed yesterday (02012.04.24) at $24.60. 52-week range: $22.46 - $38.33.

................ I'm waiting to press the "Publish" button for this posting until after the market opens today (02012.04.25) ............

IRBT opened at $23.87, down almost 3%, on 02012.04.25.

Altair Nanotechnologies Doing Business in China

Altair Nanotechnologies (ALTI) hit a buck a week ago, but it likes to penny stock. I liked this press release that the Altair issued yesterday: Altair Partners With Chinese Cities of Handan and Wu'an to Accelerate the Production and Deployment of Lithium Titanate Energy Storage Systems in China
"These new agreements will provide significant support and incentives for our entry into the Chinese energy storage market," said Alexander Lee, the Company's Chief Executive Officer. "By partnering with Handan and Wu'an cities, we will leverage our core technologies to gain access into key markets in China, which are eager to use LTO-based solutions to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and reduce emissions."

This press release was released before the markets opened on yesterday 02012.04.24. ALTI had closed the previous day at $0.87. ALTI opened yesterday at $0.92 and closed at $0.92. Intra-day high was $0.94. Volume was average.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Cray Sells Technology To Intel

Cray (CRAY) announced it is selling its "interconnect hardware assets" for $140 million (cash). In addition, 74 Cray employees to are going to join Intel. I think 74 employees represent ~8% of Cray's workforce. $140 million is approximately $3.95 per CRAY share. CRAY closed today (02012.04.24) at $7.04. 52-week range: $4.96 - $8.39.
"By broadening our relationship with Intel, we are positioned to further penetrate the HPC market and expand on our industry-leading technologies in support of our Adaptive Supercomputing vision." -- Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray

Cray CEO Ungaro says the Intel deal "is an exciting win for our customers, our company and our shareholders." I hope he's right.

[update::02012.04.25] CRAY opened at $9.09, up 29.1%. 15 minutes into trading and CRAY's volume was already 2-times the trailing-3-month average.

[update::02012.04.26] CRAY closed yesterday at $8.51 after hitting a new 52-week high of $9.19. Trading volume was two million compared to a trailing-3-month average of 0.2 million. The number of shares traded was ~5.6% of the total number of CRAY shares.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Aastrom Biosciences; Red Hat; US Airways

Tidbits from last week...

Aastrom Biosciences (ASTM) got an upgrade from WBB Securities from 'Hold' to 'Speculative Buy.' During December of last year, WBB Securities upgraded ASTM from 'Sell' to 'Hold.' WBB Securities initiated coverage on ASTM with a 'Sell' rating during February of last year. ASTM closed on Friday (02012.04.20) at $2.56, up 17.43% for the week. 52-week range: $1.75 - $3.47.

Red Hat (RHT) hit a new 52-week high of $62.75 last week Thursday (02012.04.19). I have an order to sell a tiny bit of RHT at $67.48.

US Airways (LCC) might try to acquire American Airlines. LCC was up 19.1% for the week and it is currently #10 in the GDT::Portfolio. Note: LCC at #10 is an indication that the GDT::Portfolio isn't doing well.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Illumina Tanking TCAGTCAGTCAG... = GAG

Today (02012.04.18) is Wednesday. Last week Thursday I had a blog posting titled Illumina Stock Price Heavily Dependent on Roche. Today ILMN opened at $40.42, down 8.14%. Right now (02012.04.18 at 7:11am MST) ILMN's trading volume is already three times the trailing-3-month average. In a nutshell: Illumina is not going to be acquired by Roche and Roche has no near term plans to increase their offer of $51 per share.

I just don't have enough brain to understand this stuff. Roche's offer of $51 was probably a fair price for the value of Illumina today, but Roche wanted to buy into the future for $0. How nice. I have to believe that some institutional investors are happy to be given a chance to accumulate positions in Illumina at ILMN's current price.

[update::02012.04.19] ILMN ended yesterday at $44.51, up $0.51 for the day. Volume was 26.3 million--almost 7-times the trailing-3-month average. 26.3 million is approximately 19% of all ILMN shares. Finance.Yahoo.com is reporting that 13% of ILMN shares are closely held and that "institutions and mutual funds" own 104% of all ILMN shares. Hmm...

[update::02012.04.19] Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) rejected a takeover bid from GlaxoSmithKline. HGSI, which is not a GDT::Portfolio stock, closed yesterday (02012.04.18) at $7.17. Today it opened at $14.24 (i.e. up 100%). The GlaxoSmithKline offer was $13.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Yahoo! Reports Solid 1Q'12 Results

Yahoo! (YHOO) reported 1Q'12 results today (02012.04.17) after the market closed. I'm not going to listen to the conference call, but that will probably determine how YHOO trades tomorrow when the market opens.
"In the first quarter, Yahoo!’s results came in at the high end of our guidance range and beat consensus on revenue and profits." -- Scott Thompson, CEO of Yahoo!

My notes... Free cash flow was $196 million. "Cash" on 31 March 02012 was $2.652 billion. During 1Q'12 Yahoo! repurchased 5 million shares for $71 million ($14.20 per YHOO share).

YHOO closed 02012.04.17 at $15.01. 52-week range: $11.09 - $18.84.

[update::02012.04.18] I might read this... SeekingAlpha.com::Yahoo!'s CEO Discusses Q1 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript. Duh! quote: "In short, this quarter (2Q'12) has more potential for variability than other quarters." And I agree with CEO Thompson: "I am convinced that we don't need to reinvent who we are."

Monday, April 16, 2012

GOOG Down Pi Percent Two Consecutive Days

For two consecutive days Google (GOOG) has been down Pi% (3.14%) and I have the print screens to prove it.

Note: 3.14 is not the mathematical constant Pi (3.141592653589793238), but 3.14 is Pi rounded to the nearest hundredth.

Bruker Issues Another Slew of Scientific Press Releases

Borrowing from Britney Spears... Oops, it's happened again... Bruker (BRKR) has issued a slew of press releases and I don't know what they mean.
04/16/12... Bruker Introduces the S1 TITAN(TM), an Advanced Handheld XRF Analyzer for Metals Alloy Verification, Recycling and Scrap Sorting

04/16/12... Bruker Introduces High Definition (HD) and the revolutionary NMR Thermometer(TM) to NMR with the Most Sensitive, Accurate, High Definition NMR Spectrometer

04/16/12... Bruker's New CryoProbe(TM) Prodigy TCI 600 Delivers a 2.5x Proton Sensitivity Boost, Providing a more than 6-fold Throughput Enhancement for Routine and Research NMR

04/16/12... Bruker Announces BNL, a Nitrogen Re-Liquefaction Accessory for More Efficient, Sustainable and Economic Magnet Operation in NMR

All I do know is that BRKR closed last week (02012.04.13) at $14.55. 52-week range: $11.48 - $21.44.

Friday, April 13, 2012

NaND (Not a Nice Day)

At 8:02am MST on 02012.04.13 (Yes. A Friday the 13th.) the NASDAQ was down 1.2%. DJIA was down 0.72%. I found this FT.com (Financial Times) headline interesting: "US stocks drop on China GDP miss".

Google (GOOG), which reported 1Q'12 results after the market closed yesterday, was down ~3% at 8:08am MST on 02012.04.13.

[update::02012.04.13 at 1:37pm MST The markets have closed for the week. Yeah. Today was NaND (Not a Nice Day). The DJIA was down 1.05%; the NASDAQ was down 1.45%; the S&P 500 was down 1.25%; the Russell 2000 was down 1.31%.

GOOG lost 4% of its market value today. The 2:1 stock split doesn't appear overly popular, but there is also concern about CPC (Cost Per Click). The following is from Google's CFO via Tiernan Ray at Blogs.Barrons.com...

"So the dynamics around CPCs and paid clicks are just simply very complex because of all of these big factors and chain continue continually so trying to pick a horse so-to-speak just doesn’t make sense. We internally track all these factors. Who dig into all these details on an ongoing basis. So we won’t go into that level of detail every quarter. But again, the key thing to understand is that we believe that shifts in CPC or paid clicks taken independently simply don’t reflect the fundamental health of our business which we believe is actually very healthy."

I have to believe that Google is "very healthy." In fact, my gut tells me Google is very, very, very healthy. But, as with most things, only time will tell.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Google Reports 1Q'12 Results

Google Announces First Quarter 2012 Results and Proposal for New Class of Stock
capital expenditures: $607 million
workforce increase: +1.9%
effective tax rate: 18%
free cash flow: $3.09 billion
cash & equivalents: $49.3 billion

GOOG closed on 02012.04.12 at $651.01. 52-week range: $473.02 - $670.25.

From the 02012 Founders' Letter...

Today we announced plans to create a new class of non-voting capital stock, which will be listed on NASDAQ. These shares will be distributed via a stock dividend to all existing stockholders: the owner of each existing share will receive one new share of the non-voting stock, giving investors twice the number of shares they had before. It’s effectively a two-for-one stock split—something many of our investors have long asked us for.

GOOG is up in after-hours trading.

Illumina Stock Price Heavily Dependent on Roche

Illumina (ILMN) related headlines (with time stamps) seen on 02012.04.12...
Illumina Falls As Roche Doesn't Raise $6.5 Bil Offerat Investor's Business Daily(Thu 1:44PM EDT) ... Illumina Drops Below $51 Offer Price on Concern Roche Will Walk at Bloomberg(Thu 12:17PM EDT) ... Roche Sales Slip, But Hints at Willingness to Lift Illumina Offer at Fox Business(Thu 11:26AM EDT) ... Roche CEO: 'No Reason Whatsoever' To Boost Illumina Bid at The Wall Street Journal(Thu 11:00AM EDT)

ILMN closed at $49.56 down $3.01 (or 5.73%) on 02012.04.12. The NASDAQ was up 1.36% for the day. ILMN trading volume was almost three times the trailing-3-month average.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Stewart Enterprises Announces a Restructure

Stewart Enterprises (STEI) issued the following press release today (02012.04.11): Stewart Enterprises Announces Organizational Restructure, Workforce Reduction.

I consider this good news because I believe Stewart has the management team to execute a successful restructuring.

Stewart is planning on eliminating approximately 60 positions.

STEI closed yesterday (02012.04.10) at $5.97. 52-week range: $4.92 - $8.35. Although it has fallen, STEI still has a high SIR (Short Interest Ratio) of ~28.

iRobot and DARPA's Robotics Challenge; Yahoo! News

On 10 April 02012 DARPA announced its Robotics Challenge. Upon hearing this I immediately pondered what this meant for iRobot. I think DARPA #RoboChallenge is great news for our country, but I'm not convinced it's great news for iRobot. iRobot's CEO has communicate to shareholders what he thinks about DARPA's Robotics Challenge. IRBT closed yesterday (02012.04.10) at $24.12. 52-week range: $22.46 - $39.00.

Yahoo! announced its restructuring plan. "It's time for Yahoo! to move forward, and fast," said Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson. To which I say: Duh! I agree with Yahoo Should Cut More Jobs, Ironfire's Jackson Says - Forbes. YHOO closed yesterday at $14.99. 52-week range: $11.09 - $18.84.

Monday, April 9, 2012

NASDAQ Above 3000, But Well Below 5000

It's Monday morning on 9 April 02012. The NASDAQ ended last week at 3,080.50. The NASDAQ's all-time high of 5,132.52 was hit on 10 March 2000. Hmm... Is it possible for us to approach a technological singularity without the NASDAQ making new all-time highs?

Google (GOOG) reports 1Q'12 results after the market closes on Thursday of this week.

I just got done checking stocks for the first time today and my screen was a dark red (up stocks in green, down stocks in red). NASDAQ down 1.5+% at the open.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Altair Nanotechnologies Reorganizes Yet Again

Altair Nanotechnologies (ALTI) has reorganized yet again. {AltairNano.com::Altairnano Organizes to Accelerate Global Business Growth} Names used in the press release: Mr. Lee, Mr. Zou, and Mr. Wei.
"We continue to see strong customer interest in Altair's technology for applications that require safety, rapid charging, long cycle life, and that must operate over a wide temperature operating range," said Lee. "This organization structure will enable us to drive revenue, while expanding into the China market in a focused manner."

"Strong customer interest" is nice, but this company needs to start making money.

ALTI closed yesterday (02012.04.04) at $0.61. 52-week range: $0.57 - $1.74.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Yahoo! Announces Job Cuts

Yahoo! (YHOO) might just be the Peyton Place of Silicon Valley. A few days ago they filed a lawsuit claiming Facebook violated some of their patents. I thought this was good move, but now Facebook has filed a lawsuit claiming Yahoo! violated some of their patents. Today, 02012.04.04, news agencies are reporting that Yahoo! is firing 2,000 yahoos.

Yesterday I read an article in which a former manager at Yahoo! said the company could cut 25 percent of its work force "without actually cutting much of its capabilities." Of course I don't know if this is true, but it's easy for me to believe it's true.

I don't know Yahoo!'s employee count, but I do know that 2,000 is 14% of 14,000.

Yahoo! says the job cuts will enable the company to "realize approximately $375 million of annualized savings upon completion of all employee transitions."

YHOO closed yesterday (02012.04.03) at $15.18. 52-week range: $11.09 - $18.84. Right now, 6 minutes into trading, the NASDAQ is down almost 1% and YHOO is up a nickel.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

NeuroMetrix Makes a Deal With Wal-Mart

NeuroMetrix quietly announced a deal with Wal-Mart Canada.
"The purchase order covers the delivery of NC-stat DPNCheck devices and biosensors for use by health care professionals in 91 Wal-Mart Canada pharmacies for testing persons with diabetes for diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN)."

I liked this posting... SeekingAlpha.com::Wal-Mart Gets Into Diabetic Neuropathy Testing

Yesterday (02012.04.02), NURO opened at $0.82 after a previous close of $0.74. It hit an intra-day high of $0.83 before closing at $0.79. Volume was 2.8x trailing-3-month average.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Axion Power (Batteries); Bruker (Scientific Equipment)

Axion Power International (AXPW.OB) reported 4Q'11 results prior to the market opening today (02012.04.02). Our AXPW.OB investment, which is small, is underwater. Axion's CEO Thomas Granville stated the following.
"We're still here; we're still viable; we're still servicing our customers and rapidly expanding our customer base; we're still improving our product; we're still improving our team. We're here and we plan to be here for the long run."

AXPW.OB closed last Friday (02012.03.30) at $0.40. 52-week range: $0.25 - $1.15.

Bruker (BRKR) issued a three press releases, but I didn't understand any of them.

...Bruker Announces Acquisition of SkyScan, a Leading Provider of Micro-CT Systems for 3D X-Ray Imaging in Materials Research and Preclinical Studies

...Bruker Expands MALDI Biotyper Capabilities with New Protocols and Reference Libraries for Mycobacteria and Multicellular Fungi

...Bruker and University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) Announce a Collaboration within new European Network for Rapid Identification of Anaerobes (ENRIA)

BRKR closed last Friday (02012.03.30) at $15.31. 52-week range: $11.48 - $21.65.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Could Be an Interesting Tomorrow For Illumina and StemCells

Illumina (ILMN) closed last week at $52.61. Headline seen at Bloomberg.com: "Roche May Abandon its Bid for Illumina, SonntagsZeitung Reports". If true, then I expect ILMN shares to take a hit. Regardless, the Roach (oops Roche) offer indicates that Illumina is worth ~$50 if the future is ignored. I am 99.999% convinced that ILMN shares are being subjected to major manipulation right now.

I guess it all depends on how you define much more and reasonable... Posted to SeekingAlpha.com: "I carry the consensus opinion that ILMN is worth much more than $51/share, and with that being said $57-$59/share would be a reasonable offer to shareholders by Roche." My opinion is that ILMN is worth much more than $59 per share.

StemCells (STEM) was up 11% on Friday, 02012.03.30, closing at $1.11. Volume was double the trailing-3-month average. The company announced that on Monday, 02012.04.02, they will have a "Webcast to Discuss Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease Clinical Trial Results". These shares could tank if the news isn't better than good news (i.e. they could tank on good news). 52-week range: $0.70 - $9.80.

[update::02012.04.02] Illumina (ILMN) reported preliminary 1Q'12 results. This is our third consecutive quarter with a book-to-bill over 1, and we are very encouraged by evidence that our customers are getting back to work," said Jay Flatley, President & CEO of Illumina. I suspect the company issued this news because of what's happening with Roche.

[update::02012.04.02] It appears as though the news from StemCells Inc. was positive, but STEM is down almost 6% at 8:06am MST.