Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Bought Some More Twitter (TWTR) at 12 $Pi ($37.70)

Twitter (TWTR) reported 1Q'14 results after the market closed on 02014.04.29. TWTR opened down 11+% on 02014.04.30 and I bought some more TWTR at 12 $Pi ($37.70).

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Twitter (TWTR) Reports 1Q'14 Results

Twitter (TWTR) reported 1Q'14 results after the market closed today (02014.04.29). In after market hours trading, TWTR is down almost 10%; therefore, it is easy to conclude investors are not happy with Twitter's progress. Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo said the following.
"We had a very strong first quarter. Revenue growth accelerated on a year over year basis fueled by increased engagement and user growth. We also continue to rapidly increase our reach and scale. With the integration of MoPub, we now reach more than 1 billion iOS and Android users each month, making us one of the largest in-app mobile ad exchanges in the world and the only one at scale to offer native in-app advertising."

Sounds great, but Wall Street doesn't seem to be overly impressed.

TWTR closed on 02014.04.29 at $42.62. 52-week range: $38.80 - $74.73.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Nanosphere (NSPH) Hits New 52-Week Low

Nanosphere (NSPH) made a new 52-week low today (02014.04.28) and that really sucks for the GDT::Portfolio. Nanosphere doesn't release 1Q'14 results until May 7th, so I don't think that is the reason for NSPH being some a bad investment. I placed a GTC order to buy some NSPH at 0.5 $Pi ($1.57).

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Facebook (FB) Reports 1Q'14 Results

Facebook (FB) reported 1Q'14 results after the market closed yesterday (02014.04.23). Mark Zuckerberg (CEO/Chairman) started the conference call with: "We continued to grow our community in size and engagement, with nearly 1.28 billion people now using Facebook each month and almost 63% visiting daily."

FB closed yesterday (02014.04.23) at $61.36. 52-week range: $22.67 - $72.59. In pre-market trading today (02014.04.24) FB is up almost 4%; however, quoting Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg concerning Instagram: "We're very focused on consumer growth, and we move slowly and deliberately in monetization. "We don't see the need or the urge to ramp this as quickly as we possibly can." Hmm... #slowly and #deliberately are not the favorite hashtags for some investors.

iRobot (IRBT) Crashes

iRobot (IRBT) lost 10.42% of its market value on 02014.04.23. Volume was 2.8 times the trailing 3-month-average. It appears as though Wall Street's short term investors and not happy with iRobot thinking long term. IRBT closed yesterday (02014.04.23) at $35.52. 52-week range: $27.75 - $48.36.

Stocks::Stuffer iRobot posting from three weeks ago 02014.04.03...

iRobot (IRBT), after the market closed on 02014.04.02, reported that they had allocated $50 million to buyback IRBT shares over the span of the next year. "The Board's authorization of a share repurchase program reflects our confidence in the health and long-term outlook of the company. With a strong balance sheet and cash flows, we believe we can take advantage of volatile market conditions to buy back our shares while maintaining the flexibility to make strategic investments in our future." -- Colin Angle, iRobot's chairman and CEO

Stocks::Stuffer iRobot posting from yesterday (02014.04.23)...

iRobot (IRBT) reported 1Q'14 results after the market closed yesterday (02014.04.22). I liked iRobot's start to 02014, but IRBT fell 4+% in after hours trading. My guess is Wall Street didn't like CEO Colin Angle saying, "Based on our Q1 results and our outlook for the rest of 2014, we are reaffirming our full-year financial expectations [...]". IRBT closed yesterday (02014.04.22) at $39.65. 52-week range: $26.30 - $48.36.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

iRobot (IRBT) Reports 1Q'14 Results

iRobot (IRBT) reported 1Q'14 results after the market closed yesterday (02014.04.22). I liked iRobot's start to 02014, but IRBT fell 4+% in after hours trading. My guess is Wall Street didn't like CEO Colin Angle saying, "Based on our Q1 results and our outlook for the rest of 2014, we are reaffirming our full-year financial expectations [...]".

IRBT closed yesterday at $39.65. 52-week range: $26.30 - $48.36.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Illumina (ILMN) Reports 1Q'14 Results

Illumina (ILMN) reported 1Q'14 results after the market closed today (02014.04.22). I thought the company had a solid quarter.
Our first quarter results have set the stage for a strong 2014. We are experiencing an exciting uptake of our new products, including the NextSeq™ 500 and HiSeq X™ Ten, while demand for the overall product portfolio remains robust. We continue to innovate across the entire spectrum of the sequencing workflow to more broadly enable the adoption of genomics." -- Jay Flatley, CEO.

I particularly like the phrase entire spectrum when it comes to genomics.

Illumina's 1Q'14 press release ended with: "For fiscal 2014 the Company has increased projections [...]".

ILMN closed today (02014.04.22) at $141.21. 52-week range: $59.99 - $183.30. ILMN is up 10+% in after hours trading.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Aastrom Biosciences (ASTM) Grows By Acquisition

Aastrom Bioscience (ASTM) had to be halted this morning (02014.04.21) after the company announced it was acquiring Sanofi's Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine (CTRM) business for a purchase price of $6.5 million. From the press release:
Aastrom is acquiring global commercial rights to three marketed autologous cell therapy products. [...] Revenues of those three products were $44 million in 2013. Aastrom will also acquire global manufacturing and production centers located in the United States and Denmark.

Here's a quote from Aastrom's president/CEO: The acquisition of Sanofi's CTRM business is a transformative transaction that positions Aastrom as a fully-integrated global regenerative medicine company." -- Nick Colangelo

ASTM closed last Thursday (02014.04.17; market was closed on Friday) at $3.52. Today (02014.04.21) ASTM opened at $4.00 and spiked to $4.79. Right now (30 minutes into trading) ASTM is at $4.50, up ~28%.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Google (GOOG/GOOGL) Reports 1Q'14 Results

Google (GOOG/GOOGL) reported 1Q'14 results after the market closed yesterday (02014.04.16). I liked Google's start to 02014, but it appears Wall Street analysts found Google's performance disappointing.

Here's my summary of Google's 1Q'14 results.

1Q'14 free cash flow was $2.05 billion and this is the lowest its been since 4Q'10. I've been tracking Google's quarterly results since 4Q'08.] Capital expenditures were $2.35 billion, which was a record quarterly high. [During the last 12 months Google's capital expenditures have totaled $850 billion.] Google ended 1Q'14 with $59.38 billion in "cash." During 1Q'14 Google added 2,488 Googlers (i.e. employees). Google's effective tax rate for 1Q'14 was 18%.

GOOG and GOOGL closed 02014.04.16 at $556.54 and $563.90, respectively. In pre-market trading on 02014.04.17, GOOG and GOOGL are down 1.2% and 1.8%, respectively. [Note: Google was down almost 5% after reporting 1Q'14 results.]

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Simple Man Look at Yahoo! (YHOO)

Yahoo! 1Q'14 press release: "Our total repurchases are at just under $6 billion since the beginning of 2012, including repurchases of $450 million in the first quarter [2014]."

End of 1Q'14 there were approximately 1,031,420,000 YHOO shares.

Reuters (02014.04.16): "Speculation about the valuation of Alibaba has reached a fever pitch, with some brokerages pegging it as high as $190 billion."

Yahoo! owns approximately 24% of Alibaba.

24% of $190,000,000,000 is $45,600,000,000. $45,600,000,000 divided by 1,031,420,000 YHOO shares is approximately $44.21 per YHOO share.

YHOO closed on 02014.04.15 at $34.21. After reporting 1Q'14 results, YHOO opened on 02014.04.16 at $36.98. YHOO 52-week high: $41.72. I will probably sell some YHOO if it hits 14 $Pi ($43.98).

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Yahoo! (YHOO) Reports 1Q'14 Results

Yahoo! (YHOO) reported 1Q'14 results after the market closed today (02014.04.15). The headlines range from good to bad and here is one example: "Yahoo Shares Surge; Tepid Growth Is Still Growth" at The Wall Street Journal(Tue 5:09PM EDT).

The following are a couple of items I liked from Yahoo!'s 1Q'14 press release.

"Cash, cash equivalents, and investments in marketable securities were $4.6 billion as of March 31, 2014 compared to $5 billion as of December 31, 2013, a decrease of $0.4 billion."

During the first quarter of 2014, Yahoo repurchased 12 million shares for $450 million and used a net $22 million for acquisitions."

YHOO closed today (02014.04.15) at $34.21. 52-week range: $22.70 - $41.72.

Friday, April 11, 2014

NASDAQ Down Almost Pi% on 10 April 02014

Yahoo! Finance displays up stocks in green and down stocks in red. Yesterday, 02014.04.10, my Yahoo! Finance page was a sea of red and it's red again this morning. Yesterday the NASDAQ fell 3.1%.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Did the Google Stock Split Signal a Market Top?

Google (GOOG/GOOGL) executed a 2:1 stock split after the market closed on 02014.03.02. In three trading days since then the DJIA, S&P 500 and NASDAQ are down 1.61%, 2.61% and 4.85%, respectively. #MomentInTime

Monday, April 7, 2014

Bought Some More Adamis Pharmaceuticals (ADMP) at $4.97

Adamis Pharmaceuticals (ADMP) dropped below $5 this morning (02014.04.07), so I bought some ADMP at $4.97. Having ADMP in the GDT::Portfolio is a major violation of the "invest in what you know" investment adage given I have can't even spell the word pharmaceutical.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Level 3 Communications (LVLT); Google (GOOG/GOOGL); Amazon.com (AMZN)

Three postings in one day is two too many postings for one day. But... I waited a long time for Amazon.com to fall out of the GDT::Portfolio top 15. AMZN's fall from the top 15 resulted from the timing of two events: Level 3 Communications (LVLT) making new 52-week highs and Google's 2:1 stock split resulting in the creation of GOOGL shares.

LVLT took over 14th place moving AMZN to 15th. LVLT made new 52-week highs while AMZN right now is almost 20% below its all-time high. AMZN 52-week range: $245.75 - $408.06. AMZN closed yesterday (02014.04.03) at $333.62.

GOOGL was added to GDT::Portfolio at #6, which pushed AMZN to #16.

GOOG was #2 at the time of the GOOG/GOOGL split. Right now GOOGL is #6 and GOOG is #7.

Google (GOOG) Executes a 2:1 Stock Split Creating GOOGL

Google executed a 2:1 stock after the markets closed on Wednesday, 02014.04.02. The owner of n GOOG shares became the owner of n/2 GOOG shares and n/2 GOOGL shares.

This was the first time Google executed a stock split and it resulted in a new class of shares that trade under the symbol GOOGL. The next time Google does a stock split they can append an 'E' to GOOGL and get GOOGLE.

GOOG closed at $1,135.10 on Wednesday, 02014.04.02.

GOOG and GOOGL closed yesterday (Thursday, 02014.04.03) at $569.74 and $571.50, respectively.

Bought Some More Twitter (TWTR) at 14 $Pi ($43.98)

Twitter (TWTR) keeps going down, so I bought some more TWTR today (02014.04.04) at 14 $Pi ($43.98).

TWTR closed yesterday (02014.04.03) at $44.05. 52-week range: $38.80 - $74.73.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Sold Some iRobot (IRBT) at 14 $Pi ($43.98)

iRobot (IRBT), after the market closed on 02014.04.02, reported that they had allocated $50 million to buyback IRBT shares over the span of the next year. "The Board's authorization of a share repurchase program reflects our confidence in the health and long-term outlook of the company. With a strong balance sheet and cash flows, we believe we can take advantage of volatile market conditions to buy back our shares while maintaining the flexibility to make strategic investments in our future." -- Colin Angle, iRobot's chairman and CEO

IRBT closed yesterday (02014.04.02) at $42.82. 52-week range: $23.76 - $48.36. At $42.82, approximately 1,167,678 shares could be purchased and that's ~4% of the all IRBT shares.

iRobot's buyback announcement resulted in a "sell" order to be executed at 14 $Pi ($43.98).

[02014.04.03] IRBT closed down a nickel today (02014.04.03) at $42.77. Day's range: $42.15 - $44.43. Volume was below the trailing-3-month average.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Level 3 Communications (LVLT) Hitting New 52-Week Highs

Level 3 Communications (LVLT) for the second day in a row has hit a new 52-week high. LVLT is only a few bucks away from overtaking Amazon.com (AMZN) in the GDT::Portfolio. LVLT is a GDT::Portfolio stock for two reasons: Internet piping and manhole covers.

LVLT closed yesterday (02014.04.01) at $40.75 after hitting a new 52-week high of $40.99. Today (02014.04.02) LVLT hit a new 52-week of $41.18.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Aastrom Biosciences (ASTM) Improves Its Management Team

Aastrom Biosciences (ASTM) announced this morning (02014.04.01) the appointment of a Chief Scientific Officer and a Chief Medical Officer. The company's press release had the following sub-headline: Globally Recognized Industry Veterans Bring Extensive R&D and Product Development Experience in Regenerative Medicine and Multiple Therapeutic Areas. Hmm... Do two globally recognized sailors jump aboard a sinking ship?

ASTM closed yesterday (02014.03.31) at $4.39.