Thursday, November 29, 2012

Illumina Gets an Upgrade and a Downgrade

Illumina (ILMN) got upgraded from 'Hold' to 'Buy' by TheStreet Ratings today (02012.11.29) prior the market opening. ILMN closed yesterday (02012.11.28) at $51.58. 52-week range: $25.65 - $55.39. Three days ago a firm named Robert W. Baird downgraded ILMN from 'Outperform' to 'Neutral.'

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

NeuroMetrix--Insider Buy Recorded

NeuroMetrix (NURO) continues to be a drag on the GDT::Portfolio; however, I was glad to see to that company's CEO bought some NURO at $0.55 back on 02012.11.09. Yesterday, 02012.11.26, NURO closed at $0.51. 52-week range: $0.45 - $1.63.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Yahoo! YHOO Hits a New 52-Week High

Yahoo! (YHOO) hit a new 52-week high of $19 today (02012.11.26) before closing at $18.75. Volume was 1.5 times the trailing-3-month average. AP headline: "Yahoo's stock hits $19 for 1st time since [April] 2010". The AP report included the following: "Yahoo had spent $212 million buying back 13 million shares from Oct. 1 through Nov. 8, according to a recent regulatory filing, with $928 million spent so far this year."

Facebook Gets a Buy Rating

Facebook (FB) closed today (02012.11.26) at $25.94, up 8% for the day. Volume was two-times the trailing-3-month average. 52-week range: $17.55 - $45.00. Bernstein Research upgraded FB to "Outperform" from "Market Perform". Despite today's spike our FB investment is still underwater. The Motley Fool had a posting titled "Is Facebook the New Google or Amazon?" The Fool feels Bernstein "sees what a growing number of bulls are starting to see: Facebook is bigger than even its lofty market cap suggests."

Sunday, November 18, 2012

52-Week Lows: iRobot and Kratos; 52-Week High: Yahoo!

iRobot (IRBT) hit a new 52-week low last week Friday (02012.11.16) of $16.25. 52-week range: $16.25 - $38.33.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS) hit a new 52-week low last week Friday (02012.11.16) of $4.14. 52-week range: $4.14 - $7.79.

Yahoo! (YHOO) hit a new 52-week high last week Thursday (02012.11.15) of $18.16. YHOO closed the next day at $17.76 after hitting an intra-day high of $18.02. It appears as though Wall Street likes what Marissa Mayer is doing as CEO.

Geeknet and Nanosphere Keep Going Down

Geeknet (GKNT) closed at $14.68 on Friday, 02012.11.16. 52-week range: $12.07 - $21.62. Our GKNT investment is now under water and this is beyond frustrating. I am keeping an eye on insider activity (buying) at GKNT's current price. GKNT's SIR (Short Interest Ratio is a whopping 18.9.

Nanosphere (NSPH) closed at $2.42 on Friday, 02012.11.16. The company has lost ~32% of its market value since hitting a new 52-week of $3.89 on 02012.08.28. Our NSPH is still above water, but that will stop being true if NSPH hits $2.25.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Stewart Enterprises Stock is Dying, Yet the Company Lives

Stewart Enterprises (STEI) closed last week (Friday, 02012.11.09) at $7.14. 52-week range: $4.92 - $8.65. STEI is selling well below its 52-week high, yet it has a SIR (Short-Interest-Ratio) of 46.1. On 1 November 02012, there was some insider buying at $7.77. I agree with this Forbes.com headline seen on 02012.11.07: "Top Ranked Dividend Stock STEI Enters Oversold Territory".

Elections Are Done; Fiscal Cliff Ahead?; Gridlock Good?

The GDT::Portfolio sort of stepped over the edge of the looming fiscal cliff during the first couple of days after the 02012 elections. It was not a fun week.

Cray (CRAY) reported 3Q'12 results prior to the market opening on Friday, 02012.11.09, and the stock spiked to a new 52-week high of $13.63. I sold some of our CRAY shares at $13.49. CRAY closed Friday, 02012.11.09, at $13.32.

I like Marc Andreessen and I agree with his assessment.

"A lot business people if you scratch below the surface, you'll find that we're basically antibipartisanship and pro-gridlock. And so I think if you're going to have a Democratic president, having a Republican House is a pretty good counterbalance to that. It's what we've been living with and I think we've been doing fine, and I think we'll live with that for the next four years." -- Marc Andreessen via BusinessInsider.com

Monday, November 5, 2012

Bruker Reports 3Q'12 Results and Raises Guidance

Bruker (BRKR) reported 3Q'12 results prior to the market opening today. I copied the following from the company's press release and added the bolding.
Frank Laukien, President and CEO of Bruker Corporation, commented: "Despite continued softening of demand in certain markets, we are pleased with our double-digit third quarter 2012 organic revenue growth rate, which in part benefitted from our still very significant backlog. Profitability also improved in the third quarter year-over-year. As a result of our third quarter performance, we are raising our full-year 2012 revenue guidance to a range of $1.73 - $1.76 billion, and we are raising our full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $0.75 - $0.79 per diluted share."

BRKR closed at $12.59 on 02012.11.02. 52-week range: $9.91 - $17.10.

Trimble Navigation Reports 3Q'12 Results

Trimble Navigation (TRMB) ended last week with a strong Friday on 02012.11.02 after the company released 3Q'12 results. TRMB's previous close was $48.64. On 02012.11.02, TRMB spiked to $53.30 before closing at $52.68. Volume 2.3 million vs. t3m-avg. of 0.7 million. 52-week range: $38.33 - $55.95. This morning (Monday, 02012.11.05) Trimble issued a plethora of press releases.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Facebook; Level 3 Communications; StemCells; Stewart Enterprises

Facebook (FB) got a nice review from an analyst. "An equivalent valuation for Facebook is $135 billion or $54.47 per share. These numbers could even be conservative."

L-3 Communications (LLL) announced that its Security and Detection Systems division has been "awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract by the TSA to supply medium-speed explosives detection systems. This five-year acquisition program has a rev potential of $549.6 mln for L-3."

StemCells (STEM) announced it has partnered with R Biomedical to "develop and commercialize reagents for Human iPS Cell Research: The first product under the partnership, an 'ultra-primary' human fibroblast cell line from which researchers can generate iPS cell lines, was launched today under the SC Proven brand."

Stewart Enterprises (STEI) got a good review from Zachs Equity Research. "STEI is a good pick for investors seeking both growth and income, based on its solid third-quarter results, steady dividend yield and long-term earnings growth projection of 10.0%."