Tag - Alog

RC2 Corp. (Nasdaq:RCRC), Arbitron Inc. (Nasdaq:ARB) and Analogic Corp. (Nasdaq:ALOG) are among the new 52-week lows in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: First United Corp Maryland (Nasdaq:FUNC), Approach Resources Inc. (Nasdaq:AREX), Teche Holdings Company (Nasdaq:TSH), Corus Entertainment Inc. (Nasdaq:CJR), American Pacific Corp. (Nasdaq:APFC) and Somerset Hills Bancorp (Nasdaq:SOMH).

Small-cap stocks reversed course Tuesday, unable to sustain upward momentum from Monday’s surge as weakness in financial and homebuilder stocks and numbing results from the Treasury four-week bill auction overwhelmed support from energy and a surprising upside midday spurt on tech stocks. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) closed down 15.67, or 3.25%, at 465.71 and is now down 39% for 2008. For the year, the Dow is now down 34%, while the S&P 500 is down 39%.

It appeared that the afternoon trigger point for the sudden influx of selling in equities was tied to the results for the Treasury four-week bills, which not only came in at 0.000% (yes, zero), but saw a bid-to-cover ratio of 4.20. In addition, the three-month T-bill traded with a negative yield at times today. The yield on the long bond is nearing 3% once again, which is basically unheard of, and yields for both bonds and benchmark 10-year notes fell hard today as demand ramped up for Treasury products (which tug money flow away from stocks).

“These events in the Treasury market are causing traders to believe that the market lacks liquidity or buying power,” Nick Kalivas, vice president of financial research with MF Global, said in an email interview. “Institutions like hedge funds, fund of funds, etc. have to stash money in a T-bill for reasons of risk management – like expected redemptions and this is robbing the market of buying power and generating fear,” he said.

Kalivas said it will be important to see how demand goes for three-year and 10-year note auctions, as weaker results could boost equities by suggesting that the demand for liquidity is more short-term than long-term in nature. “It is one thing to buy up a three-month T-bill, but an aggressive bid on a 10-year note auction would signal long-term pessimism toward the economy and rob stocks of buyers,” he said.

Interestingly, technology stocks consistently outperformed other index products today, even though the session started out with gloomy news on the tech front from Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN), which cautioned about the outlook and from Japan’s Sony, which announced massive layoffs numbering some 16,000 . . .

Analogic Corp. (Nasdaq:ALOG), Primeenergy Corp. (Nasdaq:PNRG) and VisionChina Media Inc. (Nasdaq:VISN) are among the biggest percentage losers in Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: RCN Corp. (Nasdaq:RCNI), Doral Financial Corp. (Nasdaq:DRL), Actuant Corp. (Nasdaq:ATU), Thermadyne Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq:THMD), Syms Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMS) and Rex Stores Corp. (Nasdaq:RSC).

Small-cap stocks pushed lower on the open, weighed down by slumping financial shares and a pause in the commodities run that helped power Monday’s rally. Some of today’s small-cap gainers are DryShips (Nasdaq:DRYS), TBS International (Nasdaq:TBSI) and Eagle Bulk Shipping (Nasdaq:EGLE).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• It should be noted that the U.S. dollar was up about 0.9% against the euro, which tends to weigh on commodities.  
• Crude oil prices slipped about $0.40 a barrel on the stock market open, which could keep energy stocks at bay today.  
• Today’s pullback in the stock market comes as a logical “breather” following an impressive two-day run that lifted equities to four-week highs.  
• Earlier this morning, the Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index was down 0.8% for the week on a year-over-year basis.

Small Cap Gainers:

• DryShips up another 12% in pre-market this morning, extending the solid rally from Monday. See (Nasdaq:DRYS).
• TBS International up 7% in pre-market on light volume, extending Monday's rally. See (Nasdaq:TBSI).  
• Eagle Bulk Shipping up 6% in pre-market as many drybulk shipping companies made huge gains on Monday. See (Nasdaq:EGLE).  
• Wireless broadband provider Alvarion to cut job, executive pay. Shares rise 3% in pre-market. See (Nasdaq:ALVR).  

Small Cap Losers:

• Learning Tree International Inc. gapped downward and lost 21% as the education vendor also took an earnings-related lump. See (Nasdaq:LTRE).  
• Analogic Corp. gapped lower and shed 19% maker of health and security imaging equipment announced earnings. See (Nasdaq:ALOG).
• Con-Way Inc. slumped 16% as the freight transport company revised guidance lower. See (NYSE:CNW).  
• Cherokee Inc. slipped 10% as the brand management company corrected lower from big gains the previous two sessions. See (Nasdaq:CHKE).  

Small-cap stocks pushed lower on the open, weighed down by slumping financial shares and a pause in the commodities run that helped power Monday’s rally. At 10:01 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 6.04, or 1.25%, at 475.34.

The pending home sales report showed a decline of 0.7% in October. Earlier this morning, the Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index was down 0.8% for the week on a year-over-year basis and is off 0.4% for December so far versus November.

Today’s pullback in the stock market comes as a logical “breather” following an impressive two-day run that lifted equities to four-week highs. There is some sense among insiders that Monday’s big rally was essentially the news coming out that allowed a “bad news” rally on Friday’s employment report. From that perspective, it would mean that the market now needs fresh bullish impetus to sustain the rise, and unfortunately most of the early headlines today are tilted to the bearish side of things.

Coming into the session, technology shares were supposed to be a sore spot for the market. Looking at the tech arena, the big stories come from Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN) and Japan’s Sony Corp. Chipmaker TXN put forward a gloomy outlook, as did National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM), but TXN shares were actually up 2.9% and NSM was up 2% shortly after the open. As for Sony, the maker of PlayStation and a bevy of electronics products said it would rollout some 16,000 job cuts, which is a massive tally for the Japanese market. Despite the worrisome news on the tech front, financial shares were the primary bearish influence on early action in stocks, with the PHLX KBW Banking Index down about 3%.

Crude oil prices slipped about $0.40 a barrel on the stock market open, which could keep energy stocks at bay today. Industrial metals were sinking fast overseas, with copper down some 6% in London trading, which is a worry since copper is considered a key barometer of economic activity. It should also be noted that the U.S. dollar was up about 0.9% against the euro, which tends to weigh on commodities.

The market will be closely watching updates on the bailout package being debated in Washington for automakers. Although most anticipate a deal will come together quickly, there are some worries that Republican lawmakers could . . .

A picture’s worth a thousand words, but in the medical and security imaging industries, a picture is worth millions of dollars.

One company happily straddling these two profitable sectors and offering both some of the best imaging technology available is Peabody, Mass.-based Analogic Corp. (Nasdaq:ALOG).

The $930 million market-cap company is a leader in the design, manufacture and sale of high-precision data acquisition, and signal and image-processing-based medical and security systems and subsystems. Think computed tomography (CT) scanners, magnet-resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, digital radiography, ultrasound systems, x-ray detectors and CT-based airport security scanners.

Much of the company’s business is derived from selling its technology through contracts with OEMs, or original equipment manufacturers, such as Siemens AG (NYSE:SI), Phillips and Toshiba on the medical side, and through a security and detection systems unit of L-3 Communications Holdings (NYSE:LLL) on the security end, a seller of end-market machinery to hospitals and airports.

If you were one of those folks who just looks at net income, you would have missed the story that sent Analogic’s stock up almost 10% to its $72.77 June 5 close from its June 4 close, when fiscal 2008 third-quarter results came out.

Even though the bottom line fell slightly in the quarter because of a reduction in interest income, a subsequently higher effective tax rate and a 10% dip in security sales, the company reported 23% year-over-year revenue growth driven by better-than-expected medical product sales and strong sequential growth. Total revenue and net income excluding one-time items were both ahead of analysts’ expectations.

By segment, digital radiography was up 138%, medical imaging products were up 29% and sales of its BK-Medical unit’s ultrasound products rose 17%. The company says it’s expecting a pickup in orders for its high-performance CT scanners among other products that analysts are scrambling to find market values. 

For instance, Stanford Group analyst Josephine Millward noted in a June 6 report that because Analogic recently signed on to produce for three leading digital radiography OEMs, it could be poised to sit on up to 50% of the estimated $125 million . . .

Analogic Corp. (Nasdaq: ALOG), a designer and manufacturer of high-precision health and security imaging equipment, today reported fiscal first-quarter results above Wall Street estimates.

For the first three months ended Oct. 31, the Peabody, Mass.-based company recorded earnings per share of $0.53 per diluted share, above the $0.40 four analysts polled by Thomson were on average forecasting. For the same quarter last year, the small cap booked earning of $0.12 per diluted share.

Revenues were a robust $94.2 million, above the consensus of three analysts polled by Thomson of $87.35 million. Analogic’s current quarter revenues represent an increase of 25% from the $75.6 million booked for the first quarter last year.

Shares of Analogic (ALOG) were halted in pre-market trading.