Friday’s Market Movers – (FMR, IIIIU, STMP, CSTR)

Posted on Friday, October 29th, 2010

First Mercury Financial Corporation (NYSE: FMR) Surged 43.49% to $16.30 on news that Toronto’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. agreed to buy First Mercury for $294 million cash. First Mercury serves specialized niches of the insurance industry and Fairfax chief executive Prem Watsa says it’s an opportunistic purchase.

Information Services Group, Inc (NasdaqGM: IIIIU) climbed 39.39% to $2.30 this Friday on 644 volume. Information Services Group, Inc. an industry-leading, information-based services company, confirmed Wednesday that it will release its third quarter 2010 financial results on Tuesday, November 9, 2010.

Stamps.com Inc. (NasdaqGS: STMP) shares advanced 10.88% to $16.00 after the online seller of postage stamps announced special dividend of $2.00 per share on Thursday. The Board of Directors approved the special dividend to distribute excess cash from the Company’s capital structure, and to allow shareholders to take advantage of the current low dividend tax rate.

Coinstar, Inc. (NasdaqGS: CSTR) a leading provider of automated retail solutions rose 25.18% to $57.91 on news they beat the 50-cent average of seven analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The owner of Redbox movie-rental kiosks sales climbed 42 percent to $380.2 million. DVD revenue jumped 54 percent.


MIPS, APPY, RFMD, SHMN – Buzz Stocks With Big Gains This Week

Posted on Friday, October 29th, 2010

Several of this week’s Buzz Stocks have had a string of days with solid gains:

MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MIPS) – Shares of MIPS Technologies increased almost 24 percent from Monday’s closing price in morning trading on Tuesday after the chip maker announced first quarter profit of $7.6 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with $595,000, or a penny per share, a year earlier. Shares closed on Tuesday at $14.12, after rallying as high as $14.18. The next day, shares spiked to $14.65, before closing at $14.34. Shares of MIPS Technologies have are up about 40 percent since Monday.

AspenBio Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: APPY) – Shares of diagnostic products maker, AspenBio Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: APPY) were up as much as 71 percent from Monday’s closing price, in morning trading on Tuesday after the company announced that it initiated manufacturing on its AppyScore™ cassette-based test system, and added personnel to handle its clinical, regulatory and commercial planning efforts. Shares traded as high as 98 cents, before closing at 71 cents on Tuesday. Shares traded between 80 cents 61 cents on Wednesday and Thursday, and were trading at 69 cents in mid-day trading on Friday. Shares of AspenBio Pharma, Inc. are up about 86 percent since Monday.

RF Micro Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: RFMD) – Shares of RFMD were up 13 percent in morning trading on Wednesday after the company posted revenue of $285.8 million, and EPS of 19 cents for its fiscal second quarter ended October 2. Analysts on average expected EPS of 16 cents, on revenue of $275.9 million. Since then, shares have continually moved higher, trading as high as $7.45 on Thursday. At mid-day Friday, shares of RFMD were trading at $7.39, up about 11 percent since Monday.

SOHM, Inc. (Pink Sheets: SHMN) – The generic drug maker had several news releases this week announcing its intent to capitalize on the market opportunity in India for the company’s products. On Thursday,SOHM announced the addition of six new generic pharmaceutical products targeting asthma and respiratory disease. Shares of SOHM rallied as high as 9 cents on Thursday, before closing at 6 cents per share. Trading volume on Thursday was 10.5 million shares, a significant increase over SOHM’s average three-month trading volume of 165,398 shares. Shares of SHMN are up approximately 60 percent since Monday.


Deckers Outdoor Corp. (DECK) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Posted on Friday, October 29th, 2010

Shares of shoemaker Deckers Outdoor Corp. (Nasdaq: DECK) soared as much as 9 percent from Thursday’s closing price, in morning trading on Friday after the company reported strong third quarter earnings that beat analysts’ expectations.

“The strong performance of our new fall lines helped fuel sales gains across each of our distribution channels and geographic regions compared to the third quarter of last year,” said Deckers’ Chairman and CEO, Angel Martinez in a statement. “We continue to successfully expand the UGG brand’s market share by developing more compelling products including boots, casuals and sneakers that target a wider consumer audience. The global response to our fall collection has been very encouraging, with sell-through rates accelerating as we’ve moved into the fourth quarter. At the same time, the strong momentum the Teva brand experienced during the first half of the year is carrying over into the second half. This was driven by increased shipments of our fall collection, led by an expanded offering of closed toe products coupled with strong in-season demand for our sandal assortment. We are encouraged by the current trends in our business and believe we are well positioned for a very good holiday selling season.”
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Deckers earned $42.1 million, or $1.07 per share in the third quarter ended September 30, 2010, largely driven by improved sales of its UGG boots and Teva sandals. Analysts were expecting earnings of 93 cents per share. Quarterly revenue increased to $277.9 million, from $228.4 million, a year earlier.

Sales of the company’s UGG boots increased 20.2 percent to $255.8 million, and sales of its Teva sandals increased to $13.7 million, up 51.7 percent from $9 million a year ago.

Deckers also raised its full-year revenue outlook to a 16 percent improvement over 2009 levels, up from previous guidance of 14 percent. The company also expects its full year EPS to increase 22 percent over 2009, compared to previous earnings guidance of 16 percent, over last year.

Shares of Deckers Outdoor Corp. are up approximately 13 percent over the past three months.


Pervasip Corp. (PVSP), SOHM, Inc. (SHMN) – Today’s Top OTC Buzz Stocks

Posted on Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Shares of Pervasip Corp. (OTCBB: PVSP) were up 40 percent from Monday’s closing price, on Tuesday after the company announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, VoX Communications Corp. released a new Voice over IP (VoIP) application for Android®. Unlike other VoIP applications that require Wi-Fi, the Android application developed by Vox Communications, and Nimbuzz, also runs on 3G networks.  Pervasip is a partner in Nimbuzz’s SIP Premium Affiliate Partner Program that was established to enable 3rd party SIP technology providers, like Pervasip, to offer their services across the Nimbuzz open, universal communications platform. “We are very excited to become the first US-based premier partner to integrate our cloud-based SIP mobile calling software with Nimbuzz,” said Pervasip’s Chief Information Officer, Mark Richards in a statement. “A smooth and easy download, people appreciate having a phone line from VoX, which gives them a second phone number, a second voice mail box and low-priced VoIP calling plans that run over both the 3G and WiFi data networks. We see reports of daily sales for approximately 200,000 Android phones.” Every Nimbuzz Android download will also feature the VoX logo as the second icon on the SIP providers list within the installed Nimbuzz application. Shares of Pervasip are down roughly 60 percent over the past three months.

Shares of SOHM, Inc. (Pink Sheets: SOHM) were up more than 42 percent from Monday’s closing price on Tuesday on volume 10,568,984. SOHM shares’ average three month trading volume is 165,398. The generic drug maker today announced the addition of six new generic pharmaceutical products targeting asthma and respiratory disease. “”The market for respiratory products in India is huge,” stated Shailesh Shah, Vice President for Corporate Strategy at SOHM, Inc. in a written statement. According to a recent news release, India’s respiratory drug market size is approximately $600 million annually. Shares of SOHM, Inc. are up about 9 percent over the past three months.


Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Posted on Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Software giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) reported strong profit and sales growth in its first fiscal quarter, driven largely by sales of its flagship Windows and Office software and the launch of the latest blockbuster Halo video game.

For its first fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2010, Microsoft reported EPS of 62 cents. Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 55 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters. Operating income, and  net income a the quarter were $7.12 billion, $5.41 billion, which represented increases of 59 percent and 51 percent  respectively, when compared with the prior year period. Sales increased 25 percent to $16.2 billion, ahead of analysts’ $15.8 billion average estimates.
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“This was an exceptional quarter, combining solid enterprise growth and continued strong consumer demand for Office 2010, Windows 7, and Xbox 360 consoles and games,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft in a statement. “Our ability to grow revenue while continuing to control costs allowed us to deliver another quarter of year-over-year margin expansion.”

Among the highlights were a 15 percent sales growth in Microsoft’s Office 2010 software, and a 38 percent increase in sales of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console.

“We ended up in this great sweet spot in business spending that was re-emerging after the downturn,” Microsoft’s general manager of investor relations, Bill Koefoed, said in an interview. Increased business spending “aligned just perfectly” with Microsoft’s product launches, according to Koefoed.

Revenue from Microsoft’s Windows division increased 66 percent to $4.8 billion. Office and other business software brought in $5.1 billion, a 14 percent jump, over last year. The group that makes server software reported a 12 percent increase in revenue to $4 billion. Microsoft’s online revenue, which comes primarily from search advertising,  was up  8 percent to $527 million.

The company reaffirmed its operating expense guidance of $26.9 billion to $27.3 billion for the full year ending June 30, 2011.