Tag - ZOLL

Whew. As much of the country sweltered in July's heat, and all eyes were on the spending stalemate in Washington, stock investors scurried to find safe havens.

A wave of positive earnings news on Friday helped small-cap investors generally pick out some individual winners and emerge from the month in better shape than their large-cap brethren.

However, the two leading indexes that track small caps, the Russell 2000 Index and the Standard & Poor's Small Cap 600, both finished July with substantial losses: The Russell was off 3.6 percent, with the S&P Small Cap down 3.3 percent.

Global Consumer Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq:GHC.U), National Coal Corp (Nasdaq:NCOC) and Pioneer Drilling Co (Nasdaq:PDC) are among the new 52-week highs in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Here are the new 52-week highs among small caps:

Integral Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:ISYS), Cardionet Inc. (Nasdaq:BEAT) and Danvers Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:DNBK) were among the new 52-week highs established during Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations or values under $750 million.

Gulf Island Fabrication, Inc. (Nasdaq:GIFI), Zoll Medical Corp. (Nasdaq:ZOLL) and America's Car-Mart, Inc. (Nasdaq:CRMT) were also among the 52-week small-cap highs.

Here are Monday's 52-week small-cap highs:

Bovie Medical Corp. (AMEX:BVX), ZOLL Medical Corp. (Nasdaq:ZOLL) and Jinpan International Ltd. (AMEX:JST) were among the new 52-week highs established during Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations or values under $750 million.

eResearch Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:ERES), Quaker Chemical Corp. (NYSE:KWR) and Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:SIRT) were also among the 52-week small-cap highs.

Here are Wednesday's 52-week small-cap highs:

Zoll Medical Corp. (Nasdaq:ZOLL) CEO Richard Packer said the maker of defibrillators and medical devices has a lot of momentum and is generally executing well on its business plan. However, he acknowledged economic uncertainty and said the November elections could impact health-care spending. Packer made the comments during a morning conference call with investors and analysts.

“Clearly, we’re very excited about our results here,” Packer said. “We think we are lined up for a good back half of 2008.”

In an early Wednesday press release, Zoll raised its 2008 earnings guidance to $1.10 per share, up 10% from previous guidance of $1 per share. The company said strong results during the second quarter prompted the guidance increase.

“Obviously, we are running ahead of our plan for 2008,” CFO Ernest Whiton said. “Our outlook for 2008 is bullish based upon our first half, but there are some big macroeconomic uncertainties out there so we believe this is good, balanced . . .

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:SIRT), Zoll Medical Corp. (Nasdaq:ZOLL) and Green Bankshares, Inc. (Nasdaq:GRNB) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $750 million.

Silicon Graphics, Inc. (Nasdaq:SGIC), Anadigics, Inc. (Nasdaq:ANAD) and SenoRx, Inc. (Nasdaq:SENO) are also among the top small-cap percentage gainers.

Here are Wednesday's biggest percentage gainers among small caps

To try to breathe life into your investing strategy, consider Zoll Medical Corporation (Nasdaq: ZOLL), a company in the business of saving lives with state-of-the-art resuscitation devices.

Considering that a leading cause of death in the United States — sudden cardiac arrest — kills one person every two minutes, or 325,000 people per year, Zoll’s products are crucial and in high demand.

The company manufactures a complete line of resuscitation products, ranging from defibrillators to its AutoPulse device, which Cardiology Today named “Device of the Month” in its January 2008 issue. This noninvasive cardiac support pump provides full chest compressions in place of the manual CPR traditionally administered by emergency medical technicians en route to the hospital. The device can be activated quickly and immediately applied to the patient in an emergency setting.

The magazine reported findings from several studies that demonstrated the AutoPulse’s ability to improve survival rates in patient survival. Data from a 2004 study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology showed that when comparing use of the AutoPulse versus conventional CPR, the AutoPulse improved brain flow to the heart and brain, and brought patients vital signs to near pre-arrest levels.

Shipments of the AutoPulse, totaling $2.7 million in the three months ended Dec. 30, 2007, were unchanged in comparison to the prior year quarter. Blame that on the fact that demand outstripped supply and created a backlog. However, AutoPulse orders grew more than 40% from Q1 of last year.

ZOLL Medical Corp. (Nasdaq: ZOLL) shares are rising after the medical technology company’s fourth-quarter profit rose 26% to $6.8 million, or $0.33 per share, beating analyst estimates of $0.31 per share and compared with $5.4 million, or $0.27 per share, a year earlier.

Fourth-quarter revenue rose 25% to $74.1 million, below Wall Street projections of $85.2 million and from $59.2 million during the year-ago quarter.

“We completed a very strong fiscal year 2007 with an outstanding fourth quarter.  Sales growth exceeded 25% in every part of our business, except for the military,” CEO Richard Packer said in a statement. “Success was achieved throughout the world, with International sales continuing to exceed expectations.”

In afternoon trading, ZOLL shares are up 6.12%, or $1.41, at $24.46. Over the last 52 weeks, shares have ranged from $19.91 to $37.76.

AeroCentury Corp. (AMEX: ACY) shares are down after two of the company’s directors reported in SEC filings today and Wednesday that they disposed of 770 shares.

Arrowhead Research Corp. (Nasdaq: ARWR) shares are down more than 5% after the biotech company announced Friday morning that interim Phase I data had been published on its anti-cancer drug IT-101. The data was published in the 2007 American Society for Clinical Oncology Proceedings. In the article, the authors wrote that “the stable disease rate, although not yet conclusive, is consistent with promising efficacy.”

These are the biggest percentage losers in Friday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million: