Tag - Jakk

ViroPharma Inc. (Nasdaq:VPHM), P.F. Chang's China Bistro Inc. (Nasdaq:PFCB) and Sequenom Inc. (Nasdaq:SQNM) are among the most actively traded companies in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Exelixis Inc. (Nasdaq:EXEL), Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:JAZZ), CardioNet Inc. (Nasdaq:BEAT), JAKKS Pacific Inc. (Nasdaq:JAKK), Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (Nasdaq:ENER) and THQ Inc. (Nasdaq:THQI).

Astoria Financial Corp. (Nasdaq:AF), Quidel Corp. (Nasdaq:QDEL) and JAKKS Pacific Inc. (Nasdaq:JAKK) are among the biggest percentage losers in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Encore Wire Corp. (Nasdaq:WIRE), Omniture Inc. (Nasdaq:OMTR), CONMED Corp. (Nasdaq:CNMD), Benchmark Electronics Inc. (Nasdaq:BHE), Brown Shoe Company Inc. (Nasdaq:BWS) and Wesbanco Inc. (Nasdaq:WSBC).

The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) closed down nearly 3% on Tuesday and is now down 31% for the year. For the first time in many months, the Dow has actually pulled virtually even with the Russell for 2008, while the S&P 500 is off 35%. Today’s small-cap gainers are Riverview Bancorp (Nasdaq:RVSB), Jakks Pacific (Nasdaq:JAKK) and optionsXpress (Nasdaq:OXPS).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• The worst performing broad market sectors were metals and mining stocks, steel, gold, integrated oil and gas firms and coal shares.
• If Monday’s big rally was primarily about energy, then the main theme in motion today was about the economy and whether or not global slowing would continue to get in the way of the stock market.
• From a global standpoint, a recession in the United States and a sharp downturn around the world will hurt demand for commodity goods, a theme that played out today.
• Highlighting the bruised demand is copper, which today crumbled to the lowest point since Dec. 2005 and is now 50% from the spring highs.
• Crude oil futures plunged some 4% and quickly took some of the shine off Monday’s energy-led rally.
• This tug-of-war between valuation and the economy is always in play for the stock market, but Tuesday was center stage as investors decided whether stocks are cheap enough to warrant the risk.
• While earnings were a big part of today’s action, it seemed like the market overlooked many of the results to focus in on worries in the . . .

Small-cap stocks gave back a sizable chunk of Monday’s big rally early on today, pressured by concerns that corporate profits are already sloppy and will be further strained by a weak economy going forward. Today’s small-cap gainers are Hexcel (NYSE:HXL), Jakks Pacific (Nasdaq:JAKK) and Drybulk (NYSE:OCNF).

Other Market Watch highlights today included:

• Pharma could be one of the better-performing sectors to watch today, and has seen a few strong performers in the small-cap arena in recent days as well.  
• Commodities in general were likely to be on the defensive as the U.S. dollar was soaring against the euro, climbing 1.25%.  
• The lift small caps enjoyed Monday from the energy sector appeared on the wane today, with crude oil prices slipping on concerns about demand
• With no economic reports on tap today, the market will focus on the wave of quarterly earnings coming in.  

Small Cap Gainers:

• Hexcel reported third-quarter profit that surged 91% on sales for defense programs and wind turbine blades. See (NYSE:HXL).  
• Jakks Pacific reports 14% increase in Q3 bottom-line on tax benefit and higher sales, reaffirmed full-year guidance. See (Nasdaq:JAKK).  
• OptionsXpress posts Q3 net income that beat the Street, but edged down from a year-ago.  See (Nasdaq:OXPS).  
• JDA Software Group posts third-quarter results that handily beat the Street. See (Nasdaq:JDAS).  
• Drybulk shipper OceanFreight declares $0.77 dividend for Q3, shares jump 21%. See (Nasdaq:OCNF).

Small Cap Losers:

• Highveld Steel & Vanadium Corporation Ltd. is down 15% to fresh move lows. See (Nasdaq:HSVLY).  
• Avigen plunges 70% after intermediate trial for treatment of spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis failed. See (Nasdaq:AVGN).
• Net Servicos de Comunicacao saw the top-line increase on lower subscription rates, operating costs jumped 26%, SG&A increased 37%. (Nasdaq:NETC).  
• ENGlobal expects to report Q3 results below the consensus on Wall Street. See (NYSE:ENG).
• Twin Disc said fiscal Q1 earnings plunged due to lower volumes, unfavorable product mix and higher material costs. See (Nasdaq:TWIN).  

Validea, edited by John Reese, is an intriguing advisor service that assesses stocks based on the known investment criteria of "legendary" stock investors.

The origin of this newsletter, incidentally, was his book, The Market Gurus. The goal of the book, he says, was to find individuals who had a long-term record of outperforming the market, and then to find out as much as he could about their specific strategies.

Reese sought investment strategies that could easily be followed by individual investors. The gurus (those who ended up under his coverage) include Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Ben Graham, Martin Zweig and David Dreman.

The success of the book led to the launch of Validea, a newsletter that takes individual stocks and runs them through detailed screens against the requirements of these "guru strategies."

One of Reese's latest featured stocks is children's products retailer JAKKS Pacific (Nasdaq:JAKK), which passes the parameters based on the strategies of Kenneth Fisher, Peter Lynch and Benjamin Graham.

The $653-million market-cap company makes an assortment of children's toys and leisure products, such as Dora the Explorer and Pokeman playsets, Plug It In & Play video games and World Wrestling Entertainment figurines.

"To identify stocks that are selling at a good price, Fisher created the price-to-sales ratio (PSR). For non-cyclical companies such as JAKKS, my Fisher-based model considers PSRs below 0.75 to be tremendous values," he says, noting that JAKKS' PSR is just below that cutoff, making the grade.

He says that Fisher also likes companies with little debt, so his screen looks for companies with debt and equity ratios less than 40%. With a debt and equity ratio of 14.12%, he says, JAKKS passes another guideline.

Profit margins are also important to Fisher, Reese says. His Fisher-based model requires companies to have average profit margins of at least 5% over the . . .

JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (Nasdaq:JAKK) shares are falling more than 12% after the Malibu-Calif.-based toy maker forecast 2008 profits of $2.91 per share, which is lower than Wall Street’s expectation of $2.97 per share. In morning trading, 1.1 million shares of JAKKS have been traded versus an average of 547,000 shares.

In Wednesday morning trading, JAKK shares are falling 11.44%, or $3.14, at $24.30. For detailed price information and recent news stories about JAKKS Pacific, click JAKK.  

Getting toys to market isn’t child’s play, but Jakks Pacific Inc. (Nasdaq:JAKK) is one company that is winning this game.

Shares of the Malibu, Calif.-based company are closing in on the 52-week high of $31.42 seen last July, following a blowout holiday quarter. For investors, the question is whether they should add Jakks Pacific to their toy chest.

The toy industry has had its share of issues to deal with in the past year: a foundering economy, waning interest in non-tech wares, and safety concerns mostly over foreign-made items. Like most toymakers, most of Jakks Pacific’s goods are produced in Asia.

The gaggle of Wall Street analysts who follow Jakks Pacific have issued generally favorable opinions, with four of the nine polled by Thomson Financial having a “buy” or “strong buy” rating. The other five have it at “hold.” The median price target for Jakks is $31.50, and the current quarter is expected to yield $0.19 earnings per share, up 59% from a year earlier. Shares closed Friday at $28.14.

The top toy players are Mattel Inc. (NYSE:MAT), with $6 billion in 2007 revenue, and Hasbro Inc. (NYSE:HAS), at $3.8 billion in revenue. Jakks Pacific ranks third, with 2007 revenue of $857.1 million, a 12% increase from the year before. The company relies on three big customers: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) and privately held Toys “R” Us, accounting for a respective 19.3%, 14.5% and 14.1% of 2007 net sales.

Jakks be nimble, and Jakks be quick in locking up licensing deals with the hottest prospects to produce a related game, doll or toy.

Hannah Montana? Sure. NASCAR? Certainly. Toss in World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:WWE), SpongeBob SquarePants, old stars like Rocky, Barney and Pokemon, and the company seems to have a winning line-up. Jakks Pacific has also parlayed such names as Dirt Devil, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s into pretend-play products, while up-and-coming country star Taylor Swift, a Grammy nominee . . .

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) futures are higher and the small-cap index is ready to rise on news of January U.S. retail sales.

Small-cap stocks are set for a bullish opening following news that retail sales unexpectedly rose 0.3% in January. That beats economists’ forecast of a decline of 0.2% and is an improvement over December’s 0.4% drop.

Sales excluding autos also increased 0.3%, more than the projected 0.2%.

The numbers are good news for those worried that there is a pullback in consumption that will send the economy into recession.

Although the retail sales report represents the biggest calendar event risk of the week, the 10:00 a.m. ET business inventory data might generate a minor ripple in trading later in the morning.

Daily support and resistance levels remain static after Tuesday’s range-bound action: look for support today at 688, 680 and 674, with resistance at 710 and 721.

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) futures have moved up slightly but the small-cap index will likely open flat.

With little on the economic calendar today, Wall Street will be paying attention to corporate earnings and looking out for more pain stemming from the subprime meltdown.

Investors will also be paying attention to data on manufacturing in November, which will be released after the start of trading, with economists expecting to see evidence of a slowdown in growth.

Here are the biggest percentage gainers and losers in pre-market trading among companies with a market cap between $100 million and $750 million:

Biggest percentage gainers:

• China Fire & Security Group, Inc. (CFSG), up 25%.
• JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (JAKK), up 9% on news a lawsuit filed against it by World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) will be dismissed.
• Ampal-American Israel Corp. (AMPL), up 8% on news it has purchased a majority stake of an Israeli chemical distribution organization.

Biggest percentage losers:

• ParkerVision, Inc. (PRKR), down 17% after a weekend news article that questioned the viability of its technology.
• China Finance Online Co. Ltd. (JRJC) down 3%.
• Internet Gold Golden Lines Ltd. (IGLD) down 2%.

Jakks Pacific, Inc. (Nasdaq: JAKK) CEO Jack Friedman said the toymaker’s partnerships—especially Disney’s Hannah Montana-branded products—provide the company with exciting opportunities. USA Today and Toys “R” Us have identified Hannah Montana-themed toys as potential top holiday sellers, Friedman said. He made the comments during a morning conference call.

“We are looking forward to new Hannah Montana toys for 2008,” the chief executive said. “Buyers were extremely positive on our execution on this brand and it seems Hannah’s definitely on fire.”

Friedman said other Disney, WWE, Pokemon, Care Bears and Plug It In & Play TV Games products helped power sales. The profit margins on Hannah Montana products are consistent with Jakks’ other offerings, Friedman said.

“We are feeling great about our lineup for this holiday season,” Friedman said. “The portfolio that we have developed and nurtured along with our relationships with retailers, licensors and consumers has positioned us well for this year.”

Friedman confirmed that the company continues to look for acquisition opportunities

“While we’re looking for acquisitions, we’re using our capital for internal development but that wouldn’t prevent us from going into an acquisition,” he said. “We’re even looking at potentially doing larger deals than we have ever done before.”