Tag - Lway

Stocks are seesawing this afternoon about housing construction data tumbled to a record low.

At 2:57 pm ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) is up 0.63%, while the Dow is up 0.27% and the S&P 500 is up 0.63%.

The Commerce Department reported this morning that the construction of homes and apartments fell 12.8% last month to the lowest pace on records dating back a half-century. Analysts were expecting a rise.

Small-cap semiconductor company Kulicke and Soffa Industries Inc. (Nasdaq:KLIC) is up 28% this afternoon after it increased its revenue outlook for the third fiscal quarter. Formula Systems (Nasdaq:FORTY) has climbed 23% after reporting a rise in Q1 profit, and Lifeway Foods Inc. (Nasdaq:LWAY) is 20% after reporting record first-quarter 2009 revenues and earnings.

*****Stocks are down this morning after a “surprise” drop in new housing starts and a fall in new building permit applications. This shouldn’t really be a surprise. After all, we are in a recovering economy, and that means progress will come in fits and starts. And since housing was the underlying cause of the last run-up and a major contributor to the market slide, there should be no question that we’ll see “surprises” like this going forward.

Recall that we’ve seen some upside surprises from the housing market in recent weeks. Yesterday’s big move was attributed, in part, to an improvement in a homebuilders confidence survey. A little bad news to balance out the good should be expected.

Still, the data from April represents a new all-time low for housing starts on an annualized basis. Year over year, housing starts are down 54%, and the housing market was already headed down then.

If there is a bright side, it’s in the understanding that economic sectors, like the stock market, have to bottom out before they can improve. We could be seeing the housing market bottoming out now.

Bell-weather homebuilder Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL) reports tomorrow. Toll Brothers is a major player in new home construction so look to them as a bellwether . . .

Small-cap stocks edged lower in morning trading, pulled down by a soft tone in the U.S. dollar and by renewed jitters in the financial arena following yet another bank failure over the weekend. At 10:03 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 8.03, or 1.09%, at 729.58.

The existing home sales report came in with mixed signals; the headline figure was plus 3.1%, which beat the forecast for a more tame rise of 0.9%. However, the inventory of homes was at a record high and prices are still down steeply from last year.

Regulators closed Columbian Bank and Trust Company, which marked the ninth bank failure this year as financial institutions struggle with debt write-downs and bad loans emanating from the housing meltdown.

Also on the financial front, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LEH) was down 8.6% shortly after the opening as questions surrounding a potential purchase of the firm by the state-run Korea Development Bank have emerged. The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund was off almost 2% in early trading.

Crude oil prices climbed back above $115 dollars a barrel overnight, but sliced away much of the overnight rise ahead of the U.S. stock market opening. After the largest one-day decline Friday in nearly four years, traders will keep a close eye on crude prices to see if they experience a snap back move higher this week. The dollar was down against the yen, but basically flat versus the euro; a stronger tone in the greenback has been an important ingredient in the recent pullback in energy and other commodity markets, allowing investors to shrug off recent awful inflation data as out of touch with the sudden summer swoon in energy markets. However, if crude starts to recover back above $120 to $125 a barrel, then it could usher in a dark cloud on the price pressure issue.

Even though crude oil prices pulled back from the overnight highs, consumer and airline stocks were still on the defensive this morning, perhaps leery that energy . . .

After spiking into the green out of the gate, small caps have since plunged and are flickering in and out of the green and red midday after waning global economic growth weighed on oil, pushing the dollar and larger-cap equities higher.

At 12:30 p.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) slipped 3.46, or 0.46%, to 750.91, while the Dow had gained 18.73, or 0.16, to 11634.66.

Crude has touched a low on today’s session, selling off $3 a barrel to roughly $111 midday and posting a three month low, after OPEC forecasted that global demand for energy continue to falter.

Higher oil prices have pushed input costs for all companies higher and have weighed on operations. A decline in global growth would mean a reduced thirst for oil, which would push down the escalating raw material costs for most firms. However, that slower growth means less demand for final products. So it’s a double edged sword keeping equities in check.

“The global economic race to the bottom appears to be over as the U.S. has hit bottom and the rest of the world is still falling,” Andy Busch wrote in an email today.

The potential slowing global growth’s effect on oil sent the dollar surging to $1.4686 against the euro and 110.47 against the yen midday. The surge in the dollar as of late all started with the European Central Bank’s dovish comments last Thursday followed by reported negative GDP growth in the euro zone.

Art's-Way Manufacturing Co Inc. (Nasdaq:ARTW), Century Bancorp (Nasdaq:CNBKA) and MAG Silver Corp. (Nasdaq:MVG) are among the biggest percentage losers in Friday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion. 

Also included among the results: United Security Bancshares (Nasdaq:USBI), Omega Protein Corp (Nasdaq:OME), Metalico Inc. (Nasdaq:MEA), Crawford (Nasdaq:CRD.B), and Lifeway Foods Inc. (Nasdaq:LWAY).           

Here are the biggest percentage losers among small caps:   

Genesco Inc. (NYSE: GCO), HSW International, Inc. (Nasdaq: HSWI) and Hardinge Inc. (Nasdaq: HDNG) are among the biggest percentage losers in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $750 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage losers:

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) fell for the second consecutive day as economic reports and poor earnings made investors bearish. The small-cap index lost 10.87 points, or 1.39%, to 771.60. The Dow shed 120.96 points, or 0.91%, to 13,110.05.

On a year-to-date basis, the Russell 2000 has retreated 2.01%, while the Dow has risen 5.09% and the S&P 500 has added 2.44%.

The U.S. economy came into focus today when the Labor Department announced before the start of trading that its consumer price index increased 0.3% in October. The result was expected by economists and follows a similar rise in September.

Core prices, which exclude the volatile costs of food and energy, added 0.2%, the same as in September.

“Despite rising energy prices, inflation appears restrained,” said Arun Raha, vice president of Economic Research and Consulting for the North American operations of reinsurance company Swiss Re, in an email. “Looking ahead, there are two opposing forces at work with respect to inflation—on one hand we have high oil prices that can feed through to the core, and on the other we have weakening economic activity that softens prices.”

Consumer prices have advanced 3.5% on a year-over-year basis, while core prices have increased 2.2%. The U.S. Federal Reserve has said that it prefers core prices to stay in the range between 1% and 2%.

“The Fed needs to continue keeping a close watch on the situation,” Raha concluded.

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) and the other major U.S. indices are in negative territory with two hours left in the session. At 2:04 p.m. ET, the small-cap index was off 10.69 points, or 1.37%, to 771.78. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) had retreated 58.45 points, or 0.44%, to 13,172.56.

The bears are on top thus far today as investors digest economic reports.

Consumer prices added 0.3% in October, the U.S. Labor Department announced before the opening. That follows a similar rise in September. Core prices, which exclude the volatile costs of food and energy, added 0.2%, also the same as a month earlier.

While economists were expecting those results, they were surprised by the sharp increase in weekly jobless claims.

Claims for the week ended Nov. 10 jumped 20,000 to 339,000, outpacing projections of a more modest increase of 3,000 from an upwardly revised level of 319,000 the previous week. Michigan was the state with the largest increase in jobless claims, shedding over 4,000 jobs in its automotive industry.

“It's too early to read too much into this week's rise in jobless claims,” said Arun Raha, vice president of Economic Research and Consulting for the North American operations of reinsurance company Swiss Re, in an email. “The four week moving average was unchanged, suggesting that the underlying trend has not changed.”

The four week moving average, considered a more stable measure, stayed put at 330,000 after the previous week’s average was revised.

Lifeway Foods Inc. (Nasdaq: LWAY) left investors with a sour taste on news before the start of trading that third-quarter net income narrowed due to higher milk costs.

The Morton Grove, Ill.-based maker of dairy foods announced that its third-quarter net income was $0.47 million, or $0.03 per share, compared with a net income of $0.74 million, or $0.04 per share, a year earlier. Two analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for earnings of $0.06 per share.

The company blamed the decline on a doubling of the cost of milk over the past one year.

Lifeway Foods saw its sales increase 32% to $9.82 million from $7.46 million during the third quarter of 2006, but that result missed Wall Street’s projections of $10.18 million in revenue.

Founded by a Russian immigrant in 1986, Lifeway Foods is a family-owned company that mainly produces Kefir—a creamy probiotic dairy beverage similar to but distinct from yogurt.

At 12:52 p.m. ET, shares of Lifeway Foods (LWAY) had sunk $3.22, or 24%, to $10.50. The 52-week low of $7.85 was established on Nov. 20, 2006. The 52-week high of $20.75 was reached on Oct. 2.

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) is in negative territory on news of somewhat bearish economic reports and poor earnings from major corporations.

At 10:18 a.m. ET, the small-cap index was down 4.73 points, or 0.60%, to 777.74. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) had lost 4.80 points, or 0.04%, to 13,226.21.

Consumer prices added 0.3% in October, according to the U.S. Labor Department before the start of trading. The result was expected by economists and mirrors September’s price increase.

Core prices, which exclude the volatile costs of food and energy, added 0.2%, the same rise as in September.

The numbers tell us that inflation remains broadly in check, despite the recent spike in the price of oil and higher energy costs.

However, consumer prices have added 3.5% on a year-over-year basis, while core prices have increased 2.2%. The U.S. Federal Reserve has said that it prefers core prices to stay in the range between 1% and 2%.

In other economic news, the labor market unexpectedly softened for the week ended Nov. 10.

In a separate report the Labor Department said that weekly jobless claims climbed 20,000 to 339,000, the highest level since April. Economists were expecting a much smaller rise of 3,000 from an upwardly revised level of 319,000 the previous week.

Elsewhere, shares of J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP) are trading in the red following news that the department store narrowed its third-quarter income and lowered its fourth-quarter outlook.

Lifeway Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: LWAY)
Morton Grove, IL 60053
http://www.lifeway.net/

52-week low / high: $7.45 / $20.75
Shares Outstanding:  16.82 million
Market Capitalization: $260.09 million

The cultured investor looking to up his portfolio pedigree would be wise to watch Lifeway Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: LWAY), a producer of health food products based on kefir, an ethnic Russian dairy drink containing probiotic cultures.

Unlike yogurt, which contains two to three cultures, kefir contains 10 live and active cultures and is touted by the company as offering more nutritional benefits than its sister swill.

The company's buffet of beverages offered extends into various drinkable yogurts sold under the La Fruta brand (targeted at the Hispanic market), Tuscan brand and BasicsPlus, a dairy-based dietary supplement beverage said to support the immune system. Lifeway also produces soy-based kefir products under the SoyTreat trademark as well as cheeses and spreads under the Farmer Cheese, Sweet Kiss and Cream Cheese Gourmet brands.

Aside from selling nationwide to supermarkets, grocery stores, gourmet shops, delicatessens and convenience stores, Lifeway's new product introductions, and increase in distributors and acquisitions should continue to fuel the growing demand from America's health-concious.

Lifeway has positioned itself at the helm of the health food trend in the United States, with sales for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2007 increasing 32% to $9.8 million from $7.46 million during the same period a year ago. Kefir cultures and drinkable yogurt constitutes 60% of the company's sales, the remainder being cheese-based products.

Analysts are looking for 2007 sales of $39 million, 40% ahead of 2006 revenues and EPS of $0.26 versus $0.15 in 2006, a 73% improvement.

For more information on Lifeway, see Lifeway Foods: A corner on kefir, Aug.1, SmallCapInvestor.com.

Note: Lifeway Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: LWAY) is on the “Watch List” of Rising Star Stocks, a subscription investment newsletter from Business Financial Publishing, which also publishes SmallCapInvestor.com. As a Watch List company, Lifeway Foods displays many characteristics found in successful stock winners, and is being closely monitored for possible inclusion in the Rising Star Stocks portfolio at a later date.

Lifeway Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: LWAY)
Morton Grove, IL 60053
http://www.lifeway.net/

52-week low / high: $7.45 / $20.75
Shares Outstanding:  16.82 million

Lifeway Foods, Inc. (Lifeway) is a maker of dairy and non-dairy health food products based on an ethnic Russian dairy drink called kefir. Lifeway’s Kefir is a dairy beverage that contains 10 live and active probiotic cultures, what the company calls "friendly" cultures versus yogurt, which contains only two or three "friendly" cultures. Lifeway’s Kefir products, according to company literature, offer more nutritional benefits.

Lifeway’s product lines includes, Kefir, various drinkable yogurts sold under the La Fruta and Tuscan brands, and BasicsPlus, a dairy based dietary supplement beverage said to support the immune system. The company also produces soy-based kefir products under the SoyTreat trademark as well as cheeses and spreads under the Farmer Cheese, Sweet Kiss and Cream Cheese Gourmet brands and several more products.  Lifeway sells to supermarkets, grocery stores, gourmet shops, delicatessens and convenience stores.

Benefiting on the trends toward healthy eating and organic foods in America and a marketing effort that leverages celebrity usage, Lifeway is enjoying some very impressive success.

During the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2007, sales increased 32% to $9.8 million year-over year. Sales of original Kefir were $8.4 million, up 28%.

Analysts are looking for 2007 sales of $39 million, 40% ahead of 2006 revenues and EPS of $0.26 versus $0.15 in 2006, a 73% improvement.

Lifeway Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: LWAY), makers of a probiotic dairy beverage called Kefir, said after the close Wednesday that total sales for the third quarter rose 32%, but clocked in below the average sales estimate on Wall Street.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, total consolidated sales increased 32% to approximately $9.8 million from $7.5 for the third quarter of 2006. The consensus of two analysts polled by Thomson Financial was for revenues of $10.18 million.

The company attributed the sales increase to a 28% increase in sales of its Kefir line and the remaining from sales of its Helios Kefir line and Pride of Main Street's milk line.

“This is a preliminary report that doesn’t tell the whole story,” said Longbow analyst Alton Stump who has a neutral rating on the stock.

Lifeway’s Helios brand Kefir line had sales of approximately $1.18 million in the third quarter and grew roughly 9% over the third quarter of 2006.

Shares of Lifeway Foods (LWAY) stumbled $0.07, or 0.36%, to $18.58 at 1:23 p.m. ET. Shares of Lifeway have been trading in the range $6.81 to $20.75 of for the past 52 weeks.

With consumers worldwide spending nearly $67 billion last year on nutraceuticals, Lifeway Foods (Nasdaq: LWAY) and NutraCea (OTCBB: NTRZ) might be smart investments to make within this fast-growing market.

Nutraceuticals (naturally derived products that have biologically therapeutic effects on humans and animals) provide a cost-effective health-care alternative focusing on wellness rather than illness. Unlike pharmaceuticals, which must overcome many regulatory barriers and typically require years of clinical trials and hundreds of millions of dollars in research and development spending, nutraceuticals face few such restrictions. As a result, these products can be brought to market much more quickly and far less expensively. 

At present, more than 40% of Americans are using alternative medical therapies, including nutraceuticals, and these products are gaining market share from more traditional health-care sectors. Nutraceutical sales are expected to grow two-to-three times faster than the overall food industry, making both Lifeway Foods and NutraCea worth looking at.

Like other companies in the nutraceutical space, Lifeway Foods is experiencing rapid growth as a result of changing American perceptions regarding alternative health care, better understanding of the relationship between diet and disease and growing interest among baby boomers in products that can reverse the effects of aging.

Lifeway Foods is a leading supplier and marketer of organic kefir, a dairy beverage that contains active probiotic cultures thought to improve digestion and overall health. Most yogurts contain two or three of these healthful cultures; kefir contains ten.

Lifeway offers 12 different kefir flavors and markets to the Hispanic community with a drinkable yogurt called La Fruta. The company has secured distribution for its products through Whole Foods, Ruddick’s, Harris Teeter, Supervalue, Jewel, Dominick and Safeway stores.

During the first six months of 2007, Lifeway’s sales increased 51% year-over-year to $18.7 million from $12.3 million, fueled by a 29% increase in kefir sales and a gain on the sale of two non-core product lines.

Kevin Kennedy’s Coolcat Explosive Small Cap Growth Stock Report, launched in October 1997, has been ranked America’s No. 1 investment newsletter by independent rating service The Hulbert Financial Digest. And no wonder: the newsletter’s portfolios have posted an overall gain for the eight years ending in 2006 of a whopping 440%, or 23.5% on an annualized basis.

Kennedy, a veteran of more than 20 years in newspaper journalism, recently shared his investing philosophy and opinions in an interview with SmallCapInvestor.com, and named his three top small-cap picks--Lifeway Foods Inc. (Nasdaq: LWAY), Hoku Scientific (Nasdaq: HOKU) and TOP Tankers (Nasdaq: TOPT).  

Explain your investment process and criteria for investments.

My focus is finding the strongest stocks in the strongest market conditions and using money management approaches to maximize gains and cut losses short.

The strength of the market can represent up to 50% of the reason for a stock’s gains, so it’s very important to be in sync with the market. I focus on the Nasdaq Composite and look for it to be trading above its 50-day moving average as a basic measure of market strength.

If the market is strong, I will be more aggressive; if the market is weak, I will retreat to mostly cash.

In a strong market I look for the strongest stocks. I am talking primarily about technical price strength as opposed to fundamentals. I look for high relative strength, recent new 52-week highs and strong volume on up days.

I then look under the hood. What is the fundamental story that is driving the price higher? It could be strong recent earnings. It could be in a sector that has been strong. It could have new product news or announcements of new contracts.

I look to buy stocks like this on a modest pullback and then use money management rules to take profits and cut losses. I go into more depth on this process in The Coolcat Guide to Winning Stocks on our CoolcatReport.com website.

Lifeway Foods Inc. (Nasdaq: LWAY) is an immigrant and family business success story. The company is America's leading supplier of the cultured dairy product known as kefir, and now America's only supplier of organic kefir. It also produces a variety of other natural and organic dairy products, including milk, cheese, yogurt and health food, and beverage products.
 
Lifeway kefir is a dairy beverage that contains the company's exclusive 10 live and active probiotic cultures. The tangy, fermented milk drink with Russian origins has gained widespread acceptance in the United States, largely through Lifeway's efforts. While most regular yogurt only contains two or three of these "friendly" cultures, Lifeway kefir products offer more nutritional benefits. Lifeway offers 12 different flavors of its kefir beverage, organic kefir and SoyTreat (a soy-based kefir).

Lifeway recently introduced a series of innovative new products such as pomegranate kefir, Greek-style kefir, a children's line of organic kefir products called ProBugs in a no-spill pouch in kid-friendly flavors like Orange Creamy Crawler and Sublime Slime Lime, and a line of organic whole milk kefir.

Lifeway also produces a line of products marketed in U.S. Hispanic communities called La Fruta, a yogurt drink it introduced in 2001. In addition, Lifeway kefir recently hit the shelves in Mexico for the first time in a variety of new, upscale supermarkets through a distributor in Texas.

The company is also targeting the rapidly-growing Indian immigrant population with a new smoothie drink called Lifeway Lassi. The new line is designed for Lifeway's core natural and health food markets, people who are familiar with lassi from Indian restaurants, and the large immigrant population from India, where lassi is a staple sold on street corners and in vending machines.

Lifeway Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq:LWAY), maker of a nutritious, probiotic dairy beverage called kefir, said Thursday that second quarter sales increased 53% and beat the sole analyst’s estimate surveyed by Thomson Financial.

For the three months ended June 30, 2007, total consolidated sales increased 53% to approximately $9.7 million, compared with $6.4 million for the second quarter of 2006. The sole analyst surveyed by Thomson Financial had estimated sales at $9.4 million.

The Illinois-based company said the increase in sales was driven by a 30% sales increase of Lifeway's kefir line and that the remainder of the sales’ increase was generated by the company’s Helios kefir line and Pride of Main Street's milk line. The Helios Brand Kefir line generated second quarter revenue of $1.2 million, while the Pride of Main Street fluid milk line generated revenues of approximately $0.24 million.

“The second quarter 2007 was another outstanding quarter for Lifeway Foods,” Lifeway's CEO Julie Smolyansky said.  “Both of our main brands, the Lifeway and Helios kefir lines, had their best quarters in terms of revenues ever.”

The company reported that their Helios brand Kefir line, had the highest quarterly revenues for the Helios line ever, increasing roughly 10% compared with the first quarter in 2006.

Local.com Corp. (Nasdaq: LOCM) reported that it was granted a patent for cell phone-enabled local search. The patent also covers several advertising models associated with the search format.

The founder of Israel-based intimate apparel and socks maker Delta Galil Industries (Nasdaq: DELT) announced he is selling his shares and transferring control of the company to the vice chairman of the board. CEO and Founder Dov Lautman is selling 2.5 million shares to GMM Capital LLC, which is controlled by Delta Galil’s vice chairman Isaac Dabah.

Telecommunications company North Pittsburgh Systems (Nasdaq: NPSI) is being acquired by Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: CNSL) for $375 million in a cash and stock deal.

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