AspenBio Pharma, Inc. (APPY) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Posted on Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

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.

“Aspen has made significant progress advancing the AppyScore cassette-based test and we are excited to put the test in the hands of actual hospital users for feedback as we proceed towards our pivotal clinical trial,” said Steve Lundy, President and Chief Executive Officer in a statement.
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AppyScore™ is a rapid, blood-based test designed to assist doctors in assessing the low risk population of emergency room patients suspected of having acute appendicitis when presenting with abdominal pain.

According to AspenBio’s Web site, up to 18% of patients are misdiagnosed and sent home with appendicitis; 8 – 10% of surgeries remove a normal appendix; women are more difficult to diagnose than men and the negative appendectomy rate is significantly higher in women; an estimated 1 million patients present annually with a low risk for acute appendicitis and are exposed to unnecessary CT scan radiation—a potentially significant health risk.

The Colorado-based company also appointed Michael Wandell, PharmD to lead its human diagnostic products’ clinical and regulatory strategy, and Erik Miller to head the company’s commercial planning efforts, including pre-clinical field testing of the AppyScore system.

Shares of AspenBio Pharma, Inc. are up about 44 percent since October 1.

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Notable Nasdaq Gainers – APPY, MIPS, SUPG, MCOX

Posted on Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

AspenBio Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: APPY) shares are up more than 125 percent since October 18th. Shares opened this morning at $0.60 and surged as high as $0.98. The company issued a news release this morning before the opening bell announcing that it has initiated manufacturing of its AppyScore™ cassette-based test system to be used in further validation and verification testing. AppyScore is a blood-based diagnostic test designed to aid emergency department physicians in the difficult challenge of evaluating patients suspected of having appendicitis. AspenBio Pharma also announced that it has contracted with Michael Wandell, PharmD to lead its human diagnostic products’ clinical and regulatory strategy, and Erik Miller to spearhead the company’s commercial planning efforts.

MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MIPS) shares 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. Excluding one-time items, MIPS earned 17 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of  7 cents per share. MIPS Technologies’ quarterly revenue jumped 50 percent to $22.5 million, largely driven by a big jump in royalties revenue. Analysts expected $19.7 million in revenue. Shares of MIPS are up about 113 percent over the past 12-months.

SuperGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUPG) shares were up as much as 27 percent from Monday’s closing price in morning trading on Tuesday, after the oncology-focused biotech company announced better-than-expected third-quarter profit, driven by by royalty revenue from its blood cancer drug, Dacogen. Third-quarter net income increased  to $3.9 million, or 6 cents a share, from $833,000 or 1 cent a share, a year ago. Revenue in the quarter rose 29 percent to $13.4 million. Royalty revenue from Dacogen rose was up $2.8 million to $13.2 million. Analysts on an average were expecting a loss of a penny per share on revenue of $11.18 million. SuperGen also raised its outlook for 2010. The company expects full-year profit of less than $12 million, up from its previous estimate of less than $4.5 million. SuperGen expects royalty revenue from Dacogen to be between $49 million and $52 million, up from its previously estimated range of $44 million to $48 million.

Mecox Lane Limited (Nasdaq: MCOX) shares had a great debut on Tuesday, opening nearly 60 percent above its initial public offering price. Mecox, which sells clothing and accessories to young  women, sold 11.74 million American Depositary Shares for $11 each, raising about $129.17 million. Shares soared as high as $18.50 in morning trading on Tuesday. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and UBS AG acted as joint bookrunners for the offering. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. and Roth Capital Partners, LLC acted as co-managers for the offering. Mecox Lane’s website, M18.com, sells proprietary brands including Euromoda and Rampage, and well-known third party brands including Adidas and Daphne. The company had about 2.1 million active online customers as of June 30. For the six months ended June 30, Mecox Lane posted net revenue of $108.03 million, up 41.6 percent from a year earlier. Net income for the same period fell 37.7 percent to $2.53 million, from a year earlier.

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Sohu.com, Inc. (SOHU) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Posted on Monday, October 25th, 2010

Sohu.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOHU)Shares of Chinese Web portal Sohu.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOHU) touched a new 52-week high on Monday after the company announced third quarter results that soundly beat the Street’s estimates. The improved results were primarily driven by revenue growth in the company’s online gaming segment.  Other contributing factors included a 134 percent increase in the company’s paid search revenue and an 22 percent increase in Sohu’s advertising revenue, over the same period last year.
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“Our largest business segment, online games, powered by the successful release of new expansion packs for our proprietary flagship product and the launch of new licensed games, once again achieved solid results,” said Sohu’s Chairman and CEO Dr. Charles Zhang in a statement.

“Our brand advertising business also set new records in the third quarter,” said Sohu’s Co-President and Chief Operating Officer Belinda Wang in a statement. “Our expanding group of advertising partners is taking advantage of strong economic conditions in China along with particular strength in each of their end markets.  More specifically, they are looking to us to help maximize their advertising spending based on our significant investments in our online platform and other value-added solutions.”

Sohu’s quarterly profit increased to $38.7 million, or $1.01 a share, from $34.4 million, or 88 cents, a year earlier. Year-over-year, Sohu’s total revenue increased 20 percent to a record, $164.1 million, well above analysts’ estimates of $156.7 million. Revenue from the company’s online gaming segment, which comprises more than half of  its total revenue, increased 25 percent to $85.6 million, over the same period last year.

Sohu forecast revenue of between $163 million and $168 million for the current quarter, versus $162.58 million expected; profit per share, excluding some costs, is projected at $1.10 to $1.15, versus the 95 cent average estimate.

The online gaming segment, powered by Changyou.com Ltd. (Nasdaq: CYOU)  has three more in-house games under development and they plan to launch one every quarter, according to Think Equity analyst Atul Bagga.

Changyou also just reported a record quarter with $85.6 million in sales, and $45.3 million in profit, up 25 percent, and 20 percent respectively, over the same period last year.

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Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Posted on Thursday, October 21st, 2010

Shares of Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) were up more than 14 percent from Wednesday’s closing price, in morning trading on Thursday after the movie rental company announced third quarter earnings that edged out the Street’s estimates, largely driven by a higher number of customers that rent movies online, and lower subscription acquisition costs.

Netflix posted revenue of $553.2 million, up from $423.1 million a year ago. Excluding stock-based compensation, Netflix earned 78 cents per share, although GAAP earnings were 70 cents per share, just shy of analysts’ estimates of 71 cents.  Netflix ended the quarter with 16.9 million subscribers, up 13 percent sequentially and 52 percent over the third quarter of last year.  Gross margin dipped to 37.7 percent from 39.4 percent in Q2.
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The company said 66 percent of its subscribers watched streaming videos in the quarter, up from 41 percent a year ago. Subscriber acquisition costs fell to $19.81 in the quarter, from $26.86 a year ago. Churn fell to 3.81 percent, from 4.4 percent a year ago.

Netflix now sees ending Q4 with 19 million to 19.7 million subscribers, up from a previous estimate of 17.7 million to 18.5 million. The company now sees Q4 revenue earnings of between 59 cents and 74 cents per share, and revenue between $586 million and $598 million, up from earlier estimates $580 million to $596 million.

“Q3 represents our fourth consecutive quarter of more than one million net subscriber additions,” said Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix in a statement. “This growth is clearly driven by the strength of our streaming offering.  In fact, by every measure, we are now primarily a streaming company that also offers DVD-by-mail,” said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and CEO.  “At the same time, the introduction of our streaming offering in Canadain late September has provided us with very encouraging signs regarding the potential for the Netflix service internationally.”

Several analysts upgraded their ratings of Netflix, including Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein, who raised his rating on Netflix shares to Outperform from Underperfrom; Janney Capital analyst Tony Wible, who raised his rating to Neutral from Sell; Merriman Capital analyst Eric Wold, who raised his rating on Netflix shares to Buy from Neutral; and Needham analyst Charlie Wolf, who trimmed his 2010 EPS estimate to $2.85 from $2.90, but lifted his 2011 view to $4.55 from $4.00.

“Our original thesis was dependent on Hollywood reacting to the NFLX competitive threat through various ways, including its own IPTV service (Hulu), new services with cable companies (TV Everywhere) and reducing the amount of TV content available to NFLX,” Helfstein wrote. “None of this has happened, and we are now at the beginning of the IPTV revolution, with NFLX in the dominant position.”

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PharmAthene, Inc. (PIP) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Posted on Monday, October 18th, 2010

Shares of biodefense company PharmAthene, Inc. (AMEX: PIP) soared almost 32 percent from Friday’s closing price, in morning trading on Monday after WBB Securities upgraded its rating on the stock to a Strong Buy. The tailwind for PharmAthene began last week after it was announced that the  NYSE Amex LLC (NYSE Amex) determined that the Company made a reasonable demonstration of its ability to regain compliance with the  NYSE Amex listing requirements and granted PharmAthene an extension until January 26, 2012 to demonstrate its compliance.

PharmAthene also caught a huge boost from last week’s news that the United States is spending up to $2.8 billion to shore up its defenses against biological warfare, according to SIGA Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIGA), the drugmaker who expects to get a government contract to supply smallpox antiviral drugs.In December 2006, PharmAthene had filed a case against SIGA pursuant to a merger agreement between the companies that was terminated in October 2006. The trial is expected to start on Jan. 3, 2011. Noble Financial Capital Markets analyst Raghuram Selvaraju expects the court case with PharmAthene to be ruled in its favor, with PharmAthene getting a percentage of SIGA’s contract with the government. Roth Capital Partners analyst Joseph Pantginis said the contract has positive implications to PharmAthene that can now identify the exact measure of potential damages.
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TheStreet.com’s James Altucher recently wrote that on the basis of this contract alone, Pharmathene would potentially make up to a billion dollars in cash earnings. “On this one catalyst I think PIP is potentially a $7 – $12 stock,” he stated in his October 15, 2010 article.

PharmAthene is also positioning its anthrax vaccine, Valortim, as a potential alternative to the existing vaccine that is administered to military personnel and individuals who work in high-risk environments. Anthrax is considered the Department of Defense’s No. 1 biological threat.  The US is required to have a stockpile of 75 million doses of vaccine. Right now, the only approved supplier of doses of vaccine is EBS, which has a long-approved first-generation vaccine that requires 5 doses over 18 months and costs $120 per dose. PIP’s second-generation vaccine requires 3 doses over 60 days and costs about $45 a dose, according to PharmAthene’s Chief Executive Officer, Eric Richman.

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