Tag - SLRY

Shares of Salary.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:SLRY) are treading lower in pre-market trading after the provider of on-demand compensation and talent management solutions reported a net loss for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 that was a penny wider than the consensus view on Wall Street. The company also issued fiscal 2009 first-quarter guidance below analysts’ mean estimates.

Shares barreled 20%, or $1.23, to $4.99 in pre-market trading. For detailed price information and recent news stories about Salary.com, click SLRY.  

Solarfun Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq:SOLF), Super Micro Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq:SMCI) and Silicon Motion Technology Corp. (Nasdaq:SIMO) are among the most actively traded companies in Wednesday's pre-market trading among those with market capitalizations under $750 million.

Salary.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:SLRY), Align Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:ALGN) and DemandTec, Inc. (Nasdaq:DMAN) are also among the most actively traded small-cap companies in pre-market trading.

Here are the most actively traded small-cap companies in Wednesday's pre-market trading:

Orthofix International NV (Nasdaq:OFIX), FirstFed Financial Corp. (NYSE:FED) and Bank of the Carolinas Corp. (Nasdaq:BCAR) were among the new 52-week lows established during Friday's trading among companies with market capitalizations or values under $750 million.

Salary.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:SLRY), DemandTec, Inc. (Nasdaq:DMAN) and 4 Kids Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:KDE) were also among the 52-week small-cap lows.

Here are today's 52-week small-cap lows:

Bill Martin is well known as the original founder of the Raging Bull, an early leader among financial online communities. Now, in addition to being a director for BankRate.com, he is also the founder of Indie Research, which publishes such sites as BullMarket.com.

His Bull Market Report is a daily investment service focused on identifying what he considers to be "great long-term growth, value, and income generating investments."

As part of a diversified, long-term portfolio Martin will often recommend small-cap stocks, such as one of his latest recommendations, Salary.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLRY), with a market cap of $140 million.

"Salary.com will be celebrating the one-year anniversary of its IPO and subsequent listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange,” he says. “It was around this same time that we originally looked at the company, telling investors to steer clear."

Since his first cautious assessment, the shares have ranged between $16.32 per share on the high side to Thursday’s closing price of $8.55.

Now, a year later, he has reexamined the shares. "With the stock price now significantly lower — over 40% lower — and top-line growth still strong, our opinion has changed," he says.

At its core, he notes, Salary.com provides Web-based software suites that help companies manage their employee compensation packages. "As its name suggests, the company helps clients determine employee salary and compensation through a variety of comparable databases, third-party data, and in-house data available from customers," Martin says.

Small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly turning to on-demand software downloaded from the Internet as an effective way to reduce IT spending; Salary.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLRY) and Taleo Corporation (Nasdaq: TLEO) are two leading providers that are reaping the benefits of the growing software need.

Gartner, a research firm, expects sales of on-demand software to grow to $11.5 billion by 2011 from $5.1 billion this year. That growth outlook is three to four times higher than projections for conventional business software. The advantages of on-demand software are that it is relatively inexpensive to implement and easily integrated with packaged software already in place. On-demand software is widely deployed in payroll, merchant services, human resources and customer relationship management applications.

Salary.com provides on-demand compensation software that helps small businesses manage payroll and reduce employee turnover while avoiding significant investments in hardware and IT staffing.

Salary.com software is integrated with a proprietary compensation database that lists market pricing for over 3,000 positions across numerous industries.

The bulls ran the show today as the Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) posted solid gains on news of strong September U.S. retail sales. The small-cap index added 6.19 points, or 0.74%, to 841.17. The Dow advanced 77.96 points, or 0.56%, to 14,093.08.

The bears were hibernating today as investors reacted to news that retail sales for September increased 0.6% to $380.2 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau before the opening. That surprised economists, who were expecting a rise of 0.2%.

Retail sales excluding motor vehicles and parts also outpaced analysts’ projections, rising 0.4% instead of the expected 0.3%.

The numbers suggest that the American consumer remains resilient in the face of the ongoing housing slump.

However, Kurt Karl, head of Economic Research and Consulting for the North American operations of reinsurance company Swiss Re, cautioned against an overly optimistic interpretation of the data.

“Total retail sales were strong, but excluding autos, they were up 0.4—compensating for last month’s decline of 0.4%,” Karl said in an e-mail.  “Compared to a year ago, retail sales after-inflation are close to 2%, which is weak, but not disastrous.”

Karl explained that the weakness stems from stagnant sales of furniture and building materials, which have been affected by the problems in the housing sector.

In other economic news, a measure of consumer sentiment for October unexpectedly fell, indicating that consumers are cautious about their future spending.

Slade's Ferry Bancorp (Nasdaq: SFBC), Metabolix, Inc. (Nasdaq: MBLX) and Salary.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLRY) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Friday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $750 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage gainers:

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) are posting solid gains in mid-session trading, propelled by news of strong September retail sales. At 1:21 p.m. ET, the small-cap index was up 4.97 points, or 0.60%, to 839.95. The Dow had advanced 50.81 points, or 0.36%, to 14,065.93.

Stocks are climbing following news that retail sales for September increased 0.6% to $380.2 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s more than the projected 0.2% and a sign that consumer spending remains vibrant despite the ongoing slump in the housing sector.

Consumption comprises about 70% of gross domestic product.

Retail sales excluding motor vehicles and parts also outpaced analysts’ projections, rising 0.4%. Wall Street was expecting an increase of 0.3%.

However, a measure of consumer sentiment for October unexpectedly fell, indicating that consumers are cautious about their future spending.

The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index declined to a reading of 82 from September’s level of 83.4. Economists were expecting to see a reading of 84.

But that was not enough to rain on the bulls’ parade. Wall Street is seeing nothing but green, with small caps among the best performers so far.

Salary.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLRY) shares are up after the provider of salary data announced it reached an out-of-court settlement with Mercer Human Resource Consulting LLC. The settlement releases each company from all claims by the other, according to a press release. No payments will be made to the companies under the settlement.

In February, Mercer sued Salary.com, accusing it of dishonestly obtaining copies of Mercer’s salary survey reports. In its suit, Mercer said Salary.com used the reports in its database without Mercer’s permission. Salary.com subsequently filed suit in May, accusing Mercer of surreptitiously taking information from Salary.com’s website.

In afternoon trading, SLRY shares are up 2.56%, or $0.30, at $12. Over the last 52 weeks, shares have ranged from $9.67 to $14.41.

Are you being paid as much as the person in the next cubicle over? Or if you’re a business owner, what sort of compensation package should you offer to hold onto employees while remaining competitive with that company down the street?
 
Salary.com Inc. (Nasdaq: SLRY) can tell you. The Waltham, Mass., company, which held its initial public stock offering in February, calls itself “the market leader in on-demand compensation management software.” Fortune 500 clients include Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), UPS Inc. (NYSE: UPS) and Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO).
 
Founded in 1999, Salary.com does have one big thing in its favor – solid brand awareness. In addition to the serious business of selling its software and services to companies big and small, Salary.com is better known for its public Web portal where anyone can check out how their paycheck stacks up to various averages. And some well-timed press releases have brought plenty of attention to the company’s services: the amount of each workday wasted in America (close to 20%), or the true value of a working mother to a household, compared with a stay-at-home mom ($138,095 this year) released before Mother’s Day.
 
While the IPO’s proceeds exceeded $51 million, Salary.com isn’t making money, and likely won’t be for at least a few years. Yet at least five analysts who cover the company continue to maintain a favorable view – three have it at “buy,” with two rating it a “strong buy.”

The Russell 2000 is joining the other major indices in positive territory this afternoon.  Among small caps, shares of Regeneration Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: RTIX) are up on news of a long-term product distribution agreement, while shares of Accelrys, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACCL) have not reacted despite news of a quarterly profit.

At 2:23 p.m. ET the Russell 2000 had added 3.15 points, or 0.39%, to 817.33.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 65.74 points, or 0.49%, to 13,449.58, on track for a new record close.

These are the biggest percentage losers among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million: