Tag - Vci

S.L Inds Inc. (Nasdaq:SLI), Valassis Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:VCI),  Cyberoptics Corp. (Nasdaq:CYBE) and Netlist Inc (Nasdaq:CYBE) Lead Small-Cap Percentage Gainers are among the biggest percentage gainers in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:JAZZ), NY Magic Inc. (Nasdaq:NYM), ComTech Telecommunications CP (Nasdaq:CMTL), Affymetrix Inc. (Nasdaq:AFFX), and Lihua International Inc. (Nasdaq:LIWA).

Tongxin International Ltd. (Nasdaq:TXIC), SmartHeat Inc. (Nasdaq:HEAT) and City Telecom Depository Receipt (Nasdaq:CTEL) are among the new 52-week highs in Wednesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Valassis Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:VCI), GHL Acquisition Units (Nasdaq:GHQ.U), Sourcefire Inc. (Nasdaq:FIRE), Alliance Financial Corp. (Nasdaq:ALNC), SXC Health Solutions Corp. (Nasdaq:SXCI) and China Green Agriculture Inc. (Nasdaq:CGA).

Oncothyreon Inc. (Nasdaq:ONTY), LCA Vision Inc. (Nasdaq:LCAV) and Valassis Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:VCI) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Monday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: AirMedia Group Inc. (Nasdaq:AMCN), Gainsco Inc. (Nasdaq:GAN), Telestone Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq:TSTC), 3SBio Inc. (Nasdaq:SSRX), Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq:PKOH) and General Steel Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:GSI).

Stocks rallied today suggesting that investors sloughed off fears of a correction or at least pushed out the day of reckoning. The Dow closed up 83.51 to 9,154.23 after a major drop down during the last hour of trading. The Nasdaq closed up 16.54 to end the day at 1,984.30 and the S&P 500 closed up 11.60 to finish at 986.75 after and early session high of 996.68 had traders believing that 1,000 might be broken.

The Russell 2000 closed at 557.75, up 9.37.

Leading price gainers for small-cap today was Georgia Gulf Corporation (NYSE:GGC) up 119% after announcing it had cut its debt load by half. Other small-cap gainers include Valassis Communications (NYSE:VCI) up 30%; Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) up 27%; and American Superconductor Corporation (Nasdaq:AMSC) up 23%.

Decliners in the small-cap space were lead by Inovio Biomedical Corporation (AMEX:INO) down 53% after announcing today that it had received commitments from institutional investors to purchase $30 million in securities. Other small-cap decliners include Lee Enterprises (NYSE:LEE) down 30%; Alliance Healthcare (NYSE:AIQ) down 30%; and icad (Nasdaq:ICAD) down 20%.

******Stocks have traded in a pretty tight range over the last several sessions. There's been an appearance of weakness, and some comments from talking heads that a correction is coming, or may have started. It's sure not looking that way today.

Stocks are big in the early going. The sell-off in China I mentioned the other day has reversed. All the talk of an imminent overheating of China's economy now sounds like a deliberate attempt to work stocks lower so dips could be bought.

There should be no doubt that games are being played right now. Shenanigans, as I like to call them. But it's also true that economic recovery is an unknown entity: we don't know what's going to happen, how robust the recovery is and what the upside may be. That's why the shenanigans work.

Just this morning, new jobless claims came in higher than expected. That's bad news. But stocks are up big. Many of the ongoing conditions of recession are being discounted because it's widely believed that the economy has bottomed. Some believe the recovery that's going on right now will show up as a surprise number for the third quarter GDP.

*****So that suggests that today's poor unemployment number will soon be a stabilizing, or even improving number. Yesterday's bad durable goods number will be the bottom of the cycle…

Is the market being set-up for a massive disappointment? You bet it is. Will that disappointment materialize? I don't know.

That leaves me, and other investors, in a difficult spot. So, I'm going to continue to do what I've been doing - buy quality stocks in the sectors that make sense, watch them like a hawk and take profits. That approach has worked extremely well in all of my advisory letters.

*****I haven't mentioned my Recovery Portfolio lately. I've added a couple stocks over the last few weeks and just closed a covered call trade on Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK). We made 21% and 25% in four months on a very low risk investment. I'm lining up my next covered call trade, to learn more about Recovery Portfolio, click HERE.

*****SCI Daily readers are the best. Your response to the T-shirt contest I announced yesterday to get the word out on my first book, The Small Cap Investor: Secrets to Winning Big with Small Cap Stocks, was outstanding. And I didn't even give you all the details!

First of all, I neglected to include the link to the SmallCapInvestor Facebook page. Click this link to check it out.

I also didn't mention that everyone who submits a T-shirt slogan will get a 30-day, 100% complimentary trial to my SmallCapInvestor PRO advisory service. Or that the winner gets a one-year subscription to ALL of my advisory and trading services ($2,680 value), plus a signed copy of the book and three t-shirts.

And still, you stepped up to help. Thanks again for your overwhelming support.

I will be taking submissions for the T-shirt slogan until August 9, 2009. Submissions can be made at Facebook or via email (tshirt@smallcapinvestor.com). All email submissions will be posted on Facebook and that's where the voting will take place.

*****It's pretty clear now that the trends we've seen emerging from the financial crisis and recovery will be with us for a long time. I'm talking about high unemployment, higher taxes, a weak dollar, restrictive regulations, and potential inflation, just to name a few.

Clearly, these conditions will have a profound effect on your investments in the months and years ahead.

And because many of these conditions are a direct result of government bailouts, I'm calling the condition Managed America.

We've just completed the update to the Predictions 2009 special report (I mentioned it last week, click here if you need a copy). The report does a cursory review of the past few months and the investing strategy that made big gains for Top Stock Insights subscribers.

More importantly however, the report reveals our investing strategies for the remainder of 2009 and beyond, and explores my concept of Managed America and how you can still make profitable investments. The U.S. economy has changed and investors need to understand the changes in order to make the best investments.

To complement the report, I'm hosting a web video conference on Monday, August 10th at 6:00 p.m. to go over the major themes of Managed America and how you'll make profits from this new economic reality.

The event is free, but you do need to register for it. Click here for the free registration page now to make sure you're on the list to attend.

Best Regards,

Ian Wyatt
Editor
SCI Daily

Valassis Communications Inc (Nasdaq:VCI), Trueblue Inc (Nasdaq:TBI) and Affymetrix Inc (Nasdaq:AFFX) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Thursday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion.

Also included among the results: Cohu Inc (Nasdaq:COHU), Spherion Corp (Nasdaq:SFN), Colony Bankcorp Inc (Nasdaq:CBAN), Cirrus Logic Inc (Nasdaq:CRUS), Tesco Corp (Nasdaq:TESO) and Skechers USA Inc (Nasdaq:SKX).

Shares of Valassis Communications Inc. (NYSE:VCI) have sunk almost 19% today after its second-quarter profits missed Wall Street estimates after Wednesday’s close. Net income for the second quarter was $7.3 million, or $0.15 per share, compared with $9.8 million, or $0.20 a share, from the same period a year earlier. Revenues dropped to $594.9 million, about 2.8% lower than a year ago. Wall Street was expecting the Livonia, Mich.-based company to earn $0.25 per share on revenues of $615.7 million.

In today’s trading, shares of the marketing services company are at $8.90 at 1:49 p.m. ET, down $2.23 from Wednesday’s close. The stock hit a 52-week low of $7.35 early in the trading session. Trading volume is more than seven times the average number of shares.

Small-cap stocks mounted a valiant comeback push after sinking 1% shortly after the opening, as tech stocks pushed higher, Chicago PMI beat the forecast and merger deals helped offset gloom tied to terrible weekly unemployment claims. At 10:00 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 3.25, or 0.45%, at 715.62. The tech-laden Nasdaq 100 was up 0.3%.

The weekly claims number came in at 448,000, far beyond the median forecast of 395,000, and a big jump from last week’s 404,000 number. How bad was this number? It was the single largest weekly claims figure in more than five years. Even though this survey was taken after the numbers were collected for Friday’s monthly employment release, it certainly won’t raise investor confidence about the labor market ahead of that release. It also will call into question some of the rise powered by Wednesday’s ADP employment report. The claims numbers were boosted by an emergency unemployment program, but even allowing for some data quirks, it’s a sobering report that does not paint a rosy picture of the labor market right now.

Most people came in to today’s session expecting the GDP report to claim top billing on the data slate, but economic growth was clearly upstaged by the weekly unemployment report. As for GDP, it was also a disappointment, as the headline figure came in at 1.9%, below the forecast of 2.0%. In addition, fourth quarter GDP was revised downward to minus 0.2%, the first decline in quarterly GDP since 2001.

Before the numbers came out, the stock market was higher in overnight trading, but the claims report sparked an abrupt 11-handle slide in S&P 500 futures, and triggered a big slide in the U.S. dollar and in Treasury yields. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note was down more than 2% into the stock market open, which suggested money flow away from equities toward safe-haven products. The dollar was down more than 100 basis points against the euro, slipping 0.7% after the . . .

Judging by this week’s business news headlines featuring Microsoft Corp.’s (Nasdaq:MSFT) on again/off again talks to buy Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), it would be tempting to surmise that Internet advertising is the only advertising game in town.

But headlines can deceive, or at least distort the true state of affairs in politics, in life and in business. While online advertising is indeed a thriving business, another segment of the advertising industry (arguably as far offline as you can get) is not doing so badly either.

Valassis Communications Inc. (NYSE:VCI) is a company that provides direct mail advertising and marketing services to some 15,000 advertisers worldwide, and business is booming. Fiscal 2007 revenues, helped significantly by the March 2007 acquisition of its rival Advo Inc., grew to $2.24 billion from $1.04 billon in 2006. Net income totaled $58 million in 2007, up from $51.3 million in 2006.

All this from a direct mail company, the kind that puts the inserts in your Sunday paper and fills your mail box (not your email) with those coupon books that some people love and others send straight to the recycling bin.

No matter what you may think of direct mail, advertisers continue to love it, often preferring it to other newer and higher-tech forms of advertising. Eastman . . .

Shares of Valassis Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCI) eked out a gain today on news after the close on Tuesday that it projects first-quarter earnings above the consensus on Wall Street. The Livonia, Mich.-based marketing services company expects net income between $0.22 per share and $0.28 per share for the three months ended March 31, while seven analysts polled by Thomson Financial were calling for earnings of $0.20 per share.

The first-quarter data will be released on May 1. At close, the stock had gained $0.24, or 2%, to $13.28.

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) is posting gains following upbeat news from the technology sector.

At 10:11 a.m. ET, the small-cap index had advanced 5.02 points, or 0.71%, to 715.04. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) was up 22.14 points, or 0.18%, to 12,449.40.

Small-cap stocks got off to a bullish start on news that networking products maker and tech sector heavyweight Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) was upgraded to “buy” from “hold” by Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C).

In economic news, the U.S. Labor Department reported that jobless claims for the week ended Feb. 16 fell 9,000 to 349,000 from the preceding week’s upwardly revised total of 358,000.

Economists were expecting a rise to 349,000 from an originally reported 348,000.

However, the more stable four-week measure increased 10,750 to 360,500, the highest average in more than two years.

Shares of casino and gaming companies are the top gainers this morning. Among them are small-caps Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: DDE) and Chester, W.Va.-based MTR Gaming Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: MNTG).

Elsewhere, wireless broadband access solutions provider Novatel Wireless, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVTL) is seeing its stock drop more than 20% on news that its fourth-quarter profit soared to $0.34 per share, compared with $0.09 per share a year earlier.

On the flip side, Valassis Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VCI), which offers marketing services to consumer packaged goods manufacturers, is higher on news of a rise in fourth-quarter profit.

Shares of Valassis Communications (NYSE: VCI) are rising on news before the start of trading that the provider of marketing services expects revenue to grow in 2008.

Livonia, Mich.-based Valassis reported that it projects earnings of between $53.5 million and $65.9 million, or adjusted earnings of between $2.14 per share and $2.39 per share, for fiscal 2008. Revenue growth is projected in the single digits and expected to come in the second half the year.

“We expect to continue driving cost synergies and optimization in the first half of 2008,” CEO Alan Schultz said in a statement. “In the second half of 2008, we will transition our focus to revenue synergies.”

Fiscal 2008 will be the first year since Valassis’ $1.2 billion acquisition of direct mail media company ADVO Inc. The transaction was finalized on March 2, and the ADVO name will be retired at the end of the year.

“The ADVO, Inc. integration cost synergies have exceeded our 2007 targets and our shared mail optimization efforts have improved margins,” Schultz said.

Shares of Valassis Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: VCI) are rising following news before the start of trading that the provider of marketing products and services reported that its third-quarter profit more than doubled due to a recent acquisition.

Net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $16.4 million, or $0.34 per share, compared with a net income of $6.6 million, or $0.14 per share, during the same quarter in 2006. Six analysts polled by Thomson Financial were calling for earnings of $0.22 per share.

Revenues increased a stunning 144% to $607.2 million, from $248.9 million a year earlier. Wall Street was calling for revenues of $582 million.

“Our strong results for the quarter were driven by the success of our integration efforts of the ADVO business,” said president and CEO Alan Schultz in a statement.

Livonia, Mich.-based Valassis announced on March 2 that it has completed the purchase of direct mail media company ADVO Inc. for $1.2 million. The combination of the two companies combines Valassis’ expertise in home newspaper delivery with ADVO’s direct mail business.

The complete integration of the two companies’ sales and marketing structures will be finalized on Dec. 4.

At 3:51 p.m. ET, shares of Valassis Communications (VCI) had added $2.32, or 22%, to $12.96. The 52-week high is $19.73, set on May 3. The 52-week low of $7.67 was established on Aug. 6.

DivX, Inc. (Nasdaq: DIVX), Chesapeake Corp. (NYSE: CSK) and Valassis Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VCI) are among the biggest percentage gainers in Tuesday's trading among companies with market capitalizations under $500 million.

Here are today's biggest percentage gainers:

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) has rebounded from losses this morning and is now little changed from its starting level. At 1:48 p.m. ET, the small-cap index had added 1.13 points, or 0.14%, to 791.56. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) was up 51.46 points, or 0.38%, to 13,594.86.

Small-cap stocks can’t seem to gain any traction, despite a generally bullish opening on news that Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) has hired an expert to manage its $43 billion subprime mortgage portfolio and a raised price target for Internet giant Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG).

The indices opened with a rise, but the bulls were held by news that Redbook Research, a publisher of statistics on the U.S. Retail Market, reported a 0.4% drop in U.S. chain store sales in the final week of October. With consumption comprising about 70% of gross domestic product, a slowdown could spell trouble for the economy.

The Russell 2000 fell into the red about 30 minutes after the start of trading, but has been rising cautiously since bottoming out at 11 a.m. ET.

Meanwhile, the price of oil has added $2.71 to $96.69 a barrel as the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that world oil demand growth in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 will be higher than it previously forecast.

The Russell 2000 (NYSE: IWM) is slipping into negative territory despite a generally bullish mood following upbeat news from major corporate players.

At 10:38 a.m. ET, the small-cap index had lost 2.77 points, or 0.35%, to 787.66. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) was up 15.93 points, or 0.12%, to 13,559.33.

The mood in pre-market trading was bullish following news that Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) has hired an expert to manage its $43 billion subprime mortgage portfolio. The New York-based bank caused a sell-off on Monday after announcing that it expects additional losses of $8 billion to $11 billion after already suffering $6.5 billion in credit-related losses in the third quarter.

The tech sector contributed to the positive sentiment after a broker research firm raised its price target for heavyweight Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), while Research In Motion Ltd. (TSE: RIM) received a brokerage recommendation.

In economic news, U.S. chain store sales fell 0.4% in the final week of October, according to Redbook Research, a publisher of statistics on U.S. Retail Market. The decline is a worrisome sign of lower consumer demand.

Investors will also paying attention to a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who will be in Texas at a summit on microfinance in the United States. The speech is likely to be academic in nature, but Bernanke’s words will be analyzed for clues about the current state of the U.S. economy and hints about future monetary policy action.

Marketing products maker Valassis Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VCI) posted second-quarter revenue below estimates and cut its fiscal year outlook. The Livonia, Mich.-based company reported revenue of $612.1 million, or $0.20 per share, for the three months ended June 30. In the same period of 2006, the company reported revenue of $260 million, or $0.40 per share.

Wall Street analysts were expecting $626.7 million in revenue and earnings of $0.28 per share.

The company lowered its fiscal year guidance to between $2.22 billion and $2.25 billion, compared with a previous outlook between $2.25 billion and $2.35 billion. Wall Street analysts expect fiscal year revenue of $2.26 billion.

Valassis, which creates newspaper inserts, said the purchase of direct mail advertising company ADVO Inc. raised costs.

In pre-market trading, shares of the small-cap company are hitting a year-low at $13, down $0.32, or 2.4%. Over the last 52 weeks, shares have ranged between $13.23 and $22.11.