Posts Tagged ‘technology’

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Buzz Stock of the Day- Misonix (MSON)

Monday, April 13th, 2009


There were more than 28,000 prostate cancer-related deaths in 2008.

Many of the current treatments including radiation and hormone therapies either result in a recurrence of the cancer, or have harsh side effects such as osteoporosis and anemia.

Minimally invasive treatments in late clinical trials are showing promise, however.

Our Buzz Stock of the Day — Misonix, Inc. (Nasdaq: MSON) — is developing a prostate cancer therapy based on High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) technology. The company’s HIFU-based therapy is in Phase III clinical trials at a number of academic centers throughout the U.S.

In 1999, Misonix obtained a 20 percent equity position in Focus Surgery, a company leading the way in High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) technology. Misonix manufactures the product for Focus Surgery. Misonix also markets the SB500 in the United Kingdom, Europe and Russia.

Treatment time using HIFU is usually 3-4 hours, and patients will more than likely be discharged the same day, or next day at the doctors discretion, according to Misonix’s Web site.

We like Misonix because the company makes money from its portfolio of ultrasonic medical devices that are being used in cosmetic surgery, neurosurgery, and laparoscopic surgery; is aggressively expanding its geographic footprint, and has a very promising pipeline.

For the three months ended December 31, Misonix reported net income of $194,000, or $0.03 per-share, compared with a net loss of $117,000 or $0.02 per-share. Revenue for the company’s second fiscal quarter increased 5.1 percent over the same period last year, largely due to sales growth for the company’s medical device products.

“Our medical device business made solid progress as we expanded our sales opportunities both domestically and internationally,” said Misonix CEO, Michael McManus in an earnings release.

The company has made continued strides to expand it sales and distribution network recently, and announced several agreements to enter new markets including Eastern Europe, Belgium and Luxenbourg, and Israel.

Misonix also recently strengthened its balance sheet by selling its Ultrasonic Laboratory non-core business for $3.5 million.

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Posted in Health Care Stocks | No Comments »

Buzz Stock of the Day – A-Power Energy Generation Systems (APWR)

Thursday, April 9th, 2009


With favorable policy support from the Chinese government, wind power has been witnessing a rapid development in recent years, with annual growth reaching more than 100 percent in the past few years. It’s estimated that China’s wind power industry will continue its high growth momentum in the coming years with the annual growth rate likely surpassing 60 percent, according to a recent article.

Our Buzz Stock of the Day — A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: APWR) — could likely be a big beneficiary of China’s greening.

The power systems firm reported a net income of $10.0 million, or $0.30 per share, compared with earnings of $3.4 million, or $0.25 per share, a year ago. Analysts were projecting earnings of $0.15 per-share.

Revenue rose 93.5 percent to $81.4 million in the fourth quarter.

For 2009, the company expects revenue of about $290 million and net income of about $29 million. These targets are based on the Company’s current distributed power generation (DG) backlogs, which are subject to change when the company signs new DG contracts and/or recognizes revenues from wind turbine sales during 2009.

“After China posted robust growth rates in wind turbine installation from 6GW in 2007 to 12GW in 2008, the Chinese government recently unveiled another ambitious plan to invest $11.7 billion (RMB 80 billion) in expanding the wind energy market to 30GW and requiring utility companies to generate 15 percent of their power from wind by 2010,” said A-Power’s chairman and CEO, Jinxiang Lu. “As we believe many Chinese domestic wind turbine producers are facing technological barriers and component shortages in their mega-watt class turbine production, A-Power, with its European and U.S. relationships, is well positioned to gain market share.”

A-Power had cash and cash equivalents of $43.5 million as of December 31, 2008, compared with $59.7 million at September 30, 2008. Working capital as of December 31, 2008 was $97.0 million, compared with $95.8 million at September 30, 2008.

The Shenyang-based company has had quarterly earnings growth of 124 percent year-over-year, and quarterly revenue growth of 119 percent year-over-year.

A-Power’s P/E ratio is 7.8, well below the industry average of 11.4, making it all the more attractive at these levels.

“Alternative energy perhaps has a near-term problem with overexposure in our opinion, but the industry is not hype by any stretch, and China’s demand for power will only increase again once the global crisis has passed,” said Brian Yerger, a partner at ARDA Advisors.

With recently announced partnerships with General Electric, and European wind turbine makers Fuhrlander and Norwin, A-Power could become a major player in China’s alternative energy market.

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Posted in Energy Stocks, Technology Stocks | 2 Comments »

Buzz Stock of the Day – American Technology (ATCO)

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Maritime piracy incidents were up more than 20 percent in 2008, according to a recent article.

The U.S. military and maritime security industry are taking steps to prevent acts of piracy including the installations of early warning systems like the ones developed by our Buzz Stock of the Day — American Technology Corp. (Nasdaq: ATCO).

American Technology’s LRAD sound-directed early warning systems allow operators to broadcast warning messages well beyond 1500 meters in some cases.

LRAD systems steadily gained adoption both in the U.S. and abroad, as evidenced by the San Diego-based company’s Q2 ghost numbers. ATC announced that it expects to report revenue of more than $5.5 million for the three months ended March 31, a 169 percent over the same period last year.

“With deliveries to the U.S. military leading the way, we continue to experience strong LRAD orders and sales growth,” said Tom Brown, president and CEO of American Technology.

Less than a month ago, ATC announced orders totalling $1 million for LRAD systems for the Singapore Navy, and Japanese Navy.

“Due to continuing piracy and terrorist threats, a growing number of Asian military and commercial security organizations are evaluating and procuring LRAD systems,” Brown said.

In addition to growing sales, the company plans to control costs at lower levels in 2009 than 2008. ATC also stated that it expects its LRAD margins to improve as production volumes increase.

“In addition to increasing military orders, escalating maritime piracy and an amplified focus on aircraft and passenger safety, while controlling and protecting wildlife, are generating demand for our proprietary LRAD systems in the U.S. and around the world,” Brown said.

Here’s a clip from 2006 on how the LRAD systems works:

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Buzz Stocks for the week of 3/30/09- PESI, LCUT, TRMA, and XIDE

Friday, April 3rd, 2009


The bad news is there are only 4 daily Buzz Stocks to report this week. The good news is they all closed the week higher.

Here’s a quick rundown:

Monday
Buzz Stock of the Day:
Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: PESI)
Open (3/30/09): $1.61
Close (4/3/09): $1.95
Percentage Change: +20.6
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Tuesday
We took the day off

Wednesday
Buzz Stock of the Day:
Lifetime Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCUT)
Open (4/1/09): $1.38
Close (4/3/09): $2.19
Percentage Change: +58.6
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Thursday
Buzz Stock of the Day:
Trico Marine Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRMA)
Open (4/2/09): $2.39
Close (4/3/09): $2.55
Percentage Change: +6.6
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Friday
Buzz Stock of the Day:
Exide Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: XIDE)
Open (4/3/09): $3.75
Close (4/3/09): $4.23
Percentage Change: +12.8
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Posted in Consumer Staples Stocks, Industrial Stocks, Materials Stocks, Penny Stocks, Technology Stocks | No Comments »

Buzz Stock of the Day- Trico Marine Services (TRMA)

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009


According to a recent study, daily offshore oil & gas production, which currently stands about 43 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), is forecast to grow to 53 million barrels of BOE in 2010. That growth should drive the industry annual expenditure from $193 billion in 2006 to $248 billion in 2010.

“What’s more, considerable growth is forecast for all forms of deep water production facilities, but especially floating production systems and subsea production and processing hardware. Subsea systems are also expected to attract an increasingly larger part of the shallow water offshore spend as marginal development programmes escalate,” the report stated.

That’s where our Buzz Stock of the Day– Trico Marine Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRMA) comes in.

The Woodlands, TX-based company. through its subsidiaries, provides subsea and marine support vessels to the offshore oil and gas industry. It operates in three segments: Subsea Services, Subsea Trenching and Protection, and Towing and Supply.

The Subsea Services segment provides technology oriented subsea services, including inspection, maintenance, and repair services; survey and light construction support; decommissioning; onshore engineering work; post processing of survey data; and associated reporting. The Subsea Trenching and Protection segment offers subsea trenching and protection services for the burial of subsea transmission systems. This segment’s customers are primarily within the offshore oil and gas, power (electricity transmission systems), telecommunications (intercontinental and regional systems), and military industries.

In early February the company announced new contract awards and extensions valued at around $80 million. All of the contracts were with Trico Marine’s subsea services company, DeapOcean AS, or its subsea protection company, CTC Marine. In fact, about three-quarters of Trico Marine’s business in Q4 came from its subsea business.


“Our fourth quarter EPS met expectations but the more important point is that 2008 marked the transformation of Trico from an OSV operator to an international subsea services provider with our acquisitions of DeepOcean and CTC Marine,” said Trico Marine’s chairman and chief executive, Joseph Compofelice.

In a conference call with analysts, the company stated its CTC division is likely to do well and meet expectations throughout 2009 largely because of Trico Marine’s strategy to geographically expand CTC’s footprint into stronger markets including South East Asia and Mexico, and generate a larger portion of business from military contracts.

As of Dec. 2008, Trico Marine had $95 million in cash and $712 million in net debt. During the fourth quarter of 2008, the Company converted $22 million of convertible debt into equity and drew down $30 million under its credit facilities.

Most recently, Trico rejected the board nominations of two executives from Kistefos AG, a Norweigan private equity company that holds about 22 percent of Trico’s outstanding stock. In a response to one of the two executives, Trico stated that if the nominations were approved, Kistefos would have 29 percent control of the board, exceeding the 25 percent or less mandated by the Jones Act, the U.S. federal statute that regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters between U.S. ports. Trico also said it will disregard the nominations if they are made at its upcoming annual meeting.

Join the discussion on Trico Marine Services on the company’s official Buzz Stock thread.


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