Tag - ELNK

Sequenom Inc. (Nasdaq:SQNM), EarthLink Inc. (Nasdaq:ELNK) and MannKind Corp. (Nasdaq:MNKD) are among the most actively traded companies in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: P.F. Chang's China Bistro Inc. (Nasdaq:PFCB), Oncothyreon Inc. (Nasdaq:ONTY), UAL Corp. (Nasdaq:UAUA), Huron Consulting Group Inc. (Nasdaq:HURN), GT Solar International Inc. (Nasdaq:SOLR) and Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (Nasdaq:EGLE).

EarthLink Inc. (Nasdaq:ELNK), Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. (Nasdaq:PLCE) and A Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq:APWR) are among the most actively traded companies in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Canadian Solar Inc. (Nasdaq:CSIQ), Century Aluminum Co. (Nasdaq:CENX), Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:RJET), Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:SPPI), AgFeed Industries Inc. (Nasdaq:FEED) and James River Coal Co. (Nasdaq:JRCC).

DryShips Inc. (Nasdaq:DRYS), Omnicell Inc. (Nasdaq:OMCL) and Semtech Corp. (Nasdaq:SMTC) are among the most actively traded companies in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Ciena Corp. (Nasdaq:CIEN), Wind River Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:WIND), Fossil Inc. (Nasdaq:FOSL), Otter Tail Corp (Nasdaq:OTTR), ATMI Inc. (Nasdaq:ATMI) and EarthLink Inc. (Nasdaq:ELNK).

Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. (Nasdaq:ELNK) reported ahead of today’s opening that its second-quarter earnings had beat Wall Street’s estimates. Net income for the quarter ended June 30 was $53.3 million, or $0.48 per share, compared with a net loss of $16.3 million, or $0.13 per share, for the year-ago quarter. Revenues were $245.6 million, down 21.2% from a year ago. Wall Street had been expecting $0.36 per share on revenues of $245.5 million.

“We are seeing favorable trends in many areas of the business including better than expected passive subscriber additions, lower customer churn from a more tenured customer base and significantly reduced operational costs. As a result, we are once again raising guidance for the full year,” said Rolla Huff, chairman and CEO, in a statement.

In today’s pre-market trading, shares are at $9.23, up $0.53 from Monday’s close. Shares have ranged from $5.90 to $10.16 during the past year.

Anadigics Inc (Nasdaq:ANAD), UAL Corp (Nasdaq:UAUA) and Dendreon Corp (Nasdaq:DNDN) are among the most actively traded companies in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Skywest Inc (Nasdaq:SKYW), TriQuint Semiconductor Inc (Nasdaq:TQNT), Canadian Solar Inc (Nasdaq:CSIQ), Aehr Test Systems (Nasdaq:AEHR), EarthLink Inc (Nasdaq:ELNK) and Metabolix Inc (Nasdaq:MBLX).

Here are the most actively traded companies among small caps:

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) has bounced back after falling into the red on news of a decline in pending U.S. home sales. At 1:23 p.m. ET, the small-cap index had climbed 4.68 points, or 0.68%, to 697.17. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) was up 18.94 points, or 0.16%, to 12,219.04.

Small-cap stocks are again posting solid gains after a brief foray into negative territory on news that December pending home sales declined a more-than-expected 1.5%, according to the National Association of Realtors.

That brought out the bears and the Russell 2000 dropped into negative territory at about 11:30 a.m. ET.

But stocks didn’t stay down for long, even though today’s economic news shows a weaker-than-expected drop in weekly jobless claims and poor retail sales in January.

One of the top gainers among small-cap companies is computer hardware marketer PC Mall, Inc. (Nasdaq: MALL), which is surging on news that fourth-quarter profit more than doubled.

Shares of network infrastructure products maker Echelon Corp. (Nasdaq: ELON) are also rising on news that fourth-quarter revenue jumped more than 300%.

On the flip side, EarthLink, Inc. (Nasdaq: ELNK) posted a net loss but shares of the Internet service provider are nevertheless rising because the result represents a narrowing compared to a wider loss a year earlier.

EarthLink, Inc. (Nasdaq: ELNK) CEO Rolla Huff said the Internet service provider is confident the dial-up Internet service market will exist for many years. Huff made the comments during a morning conference call.

“We believe that, not unlike the paging industry, there will be a meaningful segment of U.S. households that will have a dial-up Internet service connection for many years to come,” Huff said.

The chief executive noted industry estimates that place dial-up penetration rates at between 6% and 10% of American households in 2014.

“We aren’t ready to make that prediction, but we’re ready to predict that this form of Internet connection isn’t going away overnight,” he said. “While we’re not an organic growth story today, we’re demonstrating that this business can generate substantial free cash flow. Given the markets we’re all looking at today and probably for the foreseeable future, being in the position to generate substantial cash flow with an unleveraged balance sheet doesn’t seem like a bad place to be.”

An analyst asked Huff if EarthLink plans to acquire dial-up customers from AOL. On Wednesday, Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes announced on a conference call that the media company plans to split AOL into two segments — advertising and dial-up Internet access.

A recent study by The Carmel Group predicts a dramatic surge in the installed base of digital video recorders (DVRs) and a five-fold increase in related revenues from hardware, software and service fees to $5.5 billion over the next few years.

DVRs are becoming increasingly popular with consumers since they offer a way to effectively sort through the rising volume of broadcast, cable and broadband video and fast forward through commercials. The Carmel Group study predicts that roughly one-third of all 108 million U.S. households with televisions will have DVRs by year-end 2008. DVRs are joining cell phones, flat screen TVs and digital music players among the list of “must have” consumer electronics. The Carmel study also predicts that by 2010 there will be as many as 1.5 million users of portable digital video recorders.

Satellite television broadcasters are helping to drive increased DVR market share. They offer DVRs as a competitive tool for differentiating their services. As a result, the percentage of satellite television subscribers using DVRs is forecast to increase to roughly 50% by 2010, from 28% currently. Cable service providers are also aggressively marketing DVR technology. As a result, the percentage of DVR users among cable-television households is forecast to rise to about 50% by 2010, from approximately 10% today.

Two small caps that will benefit from these trends are Tivo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) and Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBSA).

The stock price of Retalix Ltd. (Nasdaq: RTLX), which supplies software for retailers, fuel stations and foodservice organizations, has been rising like the price of gasoline at the beginning of a warm summer season.

Since the beginning of the year, its stock has risen 37%, from about $16 at the end of December to around $22 today. On May 21, Retalix announced earnings that handily beat analysts’ expectations, and the stock was pushed up nearly 8% in two days, from $20.80 to $22.40.

But don’t get too excited yet. Those numbers reflect a partial recovery from a dismal 2006. And a closer look at its most recent earnings statement suggests that it still isn’t fully back in the express lane.

Retalix started out as a supplier of software for point-of-sale (POS) systems for retailers. Its software is used in POS platforms from companies such as International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and NCR Corp. (NYSE: NCR), although those companies also compete with Retalix with their own software. The Israel-based company sells products in more than 50 countries, and is operating in over 16,000 grocery stores in the United States and 42,000 worldwide. Its customers include The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), Costco Wholesale Corp. (Nasdaq: COST), Super-Sol Ltd. (Israel’s largest grocery retailer) and BP plc’s (NYSE: BP) chain of gas-and-convenience stores.

A couple years ago, Retalix started expanding into other software solutions for its niche markets. It made a couple acquisitions to move into back-office software to help manage inventories, customer relationships and supplier relationships, among other things. A warehouse management system, for example, is more efficient if it can easily synch up inventory numbers as POS terminals record a new sale.

The company is also helping to bring grocers into the Internet age. A Retalix subsidiary, StoreNext Retail Technologies, provides hosted electronic payment systems to independent grocers. In early May, StoreNext announced a collaboration with Earthlink, Inc. (Nasdaq: ELNK) subsidiary New Edge Networks, allowing StoreNext to resell New Edge’s broadband networking and internet services to North American grocery stores.