Archive for the ‘Technology Stocks’ Category

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Buzz Stock of the Day – Crosstex Energy, Inc. (XTXI)

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Shares of Crosstex Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: XTXI) were up more than 22 percent today.

Earlier this month, the Dallas-based natural gas transportation and processing company announced an agreement to sell its assets in Mississippi, Alabama and South Texas for $220 million to Southcross Energy LLC. Crosstex’s assets in Mississippi and ALabama consist of about 780 miles of intrastate gathering and transmission pipelines. The South Texas assets consist of about 1,400 miles of intrastate gathering and transmission pipelines.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay down more than $200 of the partnership’s debt. This will satisfy the targets for debt reductions in Sept. 2009 and Dec. 2009 established in recent amendments to its debt facilities, Crosstex said in a statement.

“The sale of our Mississippi, Alabama and South Texas assets enables us to strengthen our balance sheet as we pursue our strategy to increase liquidity, reduce leverage and improve profitability,” said Crosstex president and CEO, Barry E. Davis in a news release. “We continue to focus on the growth of our strategic assets in North Texas and Louisiana, as well as our treating business, and remain committed to being a premier provider of midstream energy services.”

More than 92 percent of Motley Fool’s CAPS members believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 this year.

The Energy Information Administration, in its Annual Energy Outlook 2004, estimates that natural gas demand in the United States could be 31.41 Tcf by the year 2025. That is an increase of 38 percent over 2002 demand levels.

The EIA expects residential energy demand to increase 25 percent between 2002 and 2025. Residential use of natural gas is expected to increase by 1.5 percent per year from 2002 to 2010 and 0.9 percent from 2010 to 2025, increasing 25.5 percent from 2002 to 2025. Residential natural gas consumption accounts for 22 percent of all consumption in the U.S.

Probably the most important long term driver of natural gas demand in the residential sector is future residential heating applications. Between 1991 and 1999, 66 percent of new homes, and 57 percent of multifamily buildings constructed used natural gas heating. In 2003, 70 percent of new single family homes constructed used natural gas. While these new homes being built are generally increasing in size, the increasing efficiency of natural gas furnaces used to heat them compensates for the increased square footage to be heated. In general, however, the increase in the number of new homes using natural gas for heat over the next 20 years is expected to provide a strong driver for residential natural gas demand.

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Buzz Stock of the Day – Alvarion (ALVR)

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Shares of Alvarion Ltd. (Nasdaq: ALVR) were up nearly 10 percent today after the Israeli provider of wireless broadband technology and services announced it was chosen to deploy a nationwide mobile wireless data network in Italy.

“This contract confirms Alvarion’s Mobile WiMAX solution as the most advanced solution in the market, and our leading position as a long-term partner for WiMAX,” said Alvarion’s CEO, Tzvika Friedman.


Given Italy`s 58 million highly-dense population, WiMAX is the most economical and high-performance technology to deliver 4G broadband to businesses and residential subscribers in a wide geographic area, according to Reuters. Alvarion`s 4Motion is an advanced and field-proven solution for delivering innovative WiMAX services for a range of broadband applications in rural, suburban and urban environments.

Lawrence M. Harris, an analyst with CL King & Associates, said in a note to investors the value of the deal is more than $20 million over the next two to three years. “The Aria announcement does not change our near-term forecast for Alvarion, but adds to our confidence in the company’s outlook,” wrote the analyst, who rates Alvarion “accumulate” with a target price of $5.

On June 17, the company said it signed a deal worth more than $100 million over five years with U.S. rural broadband wireless operator Open Range Communications Inc.

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Buzz Stock of the Day – Smith and Wesson (SWHC)

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Shares of Smith and Wesson Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: SWHC) ended the day 22 percent higher on eight-times the gunsmith’s average three-month volume after the company announced $99.5 million in fourth-quarter revenue. The 20 percent boost over the same period last year was above analysts’ forecast of $90.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

“Demand for our handguns and tactical rifles remained strong throughout the fourth quarter, as evidenced by our revenue as well as by our backlog balance,” the company said in a statement.

The company is also adding a new stream of revenue to its arsenal. On Thursday, Smith and Wesson Holding Corp. announced a deal to acquire Universal Safety Response, a privately held maker of barriers, gates and other perimeter security related equipment, for $52.5 million in cash and stock.

In a recent news release, Smith and Wesson stated that the deal should bring in revenue of $100 million next year and generate EBITDA of $15 million.

According to a recent report by the Dow Jones Newswires, first-time gun buyers, it’s been said, have rushed to buy firearms ahead of the new administration’s assumed tougher stance on gun-control laws.

The company will release full results for the quarter on June 22, after the market closes. Analysts are looking for earnings per share of 9 cents.

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Buzz Stock of the Day – Atlantic Tele-Network (ATNI)

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Shares of Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATNI) were up as much as 47 percent at mid-day trading today, after the Salem-based telecommunications service provider announced a definitive agreement to acquire $200 million in certain wireless assets from Verizon Wireless.

Atlantic Tele-Network will acquire wireless properties, including wireless spectrum licenses and network assets, serving over 800,000 subscribers primarily in rural areas across Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, and Idaho. Verizon Wireless is required to divest these properties as part of the regulatory approvals granted for its purchase of Alltel earlier this year.

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As of April 30, 2009, Atlantic Tele-Network had approximately $90 million in cash and cash equivalents, $75 million of available borrowings under its undrawn revolving credit facility, and an additional $50 million of borrowing capacity, subject to lender consent, under its term credit facility.

Atlantic Tele-Network expects the transaction to close by Q3 or Q4 of this year.

According to CEO, Michael Prior, the acquisition provides the company with “enhanced scale and revenue diversification,” and expand its U.S. wireless business. “Coupled with our existing U.S. wireless operations, we will now have significant wireless operations in rural areas of more than 10 states. Including our international operations, we expect to have more than 1,000,000 retail wireless subscribers by transaction close.”

We like ATN because the company is relsilient, generates cash from operations, and has healthy earnings growth. Shares of ATNI are down about 8.4% in the past 52-weeks, compared to Verizon’s 21.5% drop, AT&T’s 34.9% drop and Sprint’s 42.3% drop over teh past year.

ATNI generated about $65.8 million in operating cash flow and$24.1 million of levered free cash flow in the trailing 12-month period.

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Buzz Stock of the Day – InfoSonics (IFON)

Friday, May 15th, 2009

Shares of our Buzz Stock of the Day – InfoSonics Corp. (Nasdaq: IFON) — were up as much as 95 percent today on heavy volume after the wireless handset provider announced strong first quarter earnings.

The company, which serves the Latin American wireless handset and accessories market, announced first quarter earnings of $247,000 or $0.02 per share, compared to a net loss of $413,000 or $0.03 per share in the same quarter of last year. Revenues for the quarter declined to $42.6 million, compared to $67.9 million in the first quarter of 2008. However, net sales increased sequentially by $9.2 million.

Operating expenses decreased were $2.9 million, a decrease of 22% when compared to operating expenses of $3.7 million in the first quarter of 2008, and a decrease of 23% when compared to operating expenses of $3.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2008.

“While we are very encouraged by the improvement in our results over last quarter, we continue to focus on increasing our revenues and gross margins,” said InfoSonics’ president and CEO, Joseph Ram. “In addition we took steps during the quarter to realign our cost structure with our current revenue level. We remain focused on profitability and are working with our vendors; both OEM and proprietary, to better manage our inventory levels and overall expenses.”

We like IFON because the company has a strong balance sheet, generates cash from operations, and is taking the right steps to maintain profitability. The sizable decrease in operating expenses coupled with the company’s ability to generate profit despite a drop in sales makes us bullish on InfoSonics’ future. Last year, the company generated approximately $17 million of operating cash flow on revenue of $213 million. InfoSonics has about $24 million of cash in the bank, and is trading at a lower multiple than many of its competitors.

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