[2008.08.22] US Airways had a volatile week of trading. It opened the week at $8.85; hit a high of $9.34 before falling to $6.20; and ended the week at $7.86, down almost 12%.

[2008.08.22] NeuroMetrix hit a new 52-week low of $1.15 before closing at $1.16.

[2008.08.20] Novell reported that Microsoft has "agreed to buy as much as $100 million more for subscription certificates for Novell's Linux products." NOVL previous close was $5.74.

[22 August 2008, top]

[2008.08.14] US Airways had a 19 million share offering at $8.50, which is 246% higher than our average cost per LCC share of $2.46.

[2008.08.13] Illumina issued a press release stating the following: "The underwriter of the public offering of the Company's common stock fully exercised its option to purchase up to 525,000 additional shares. A total of 4,025,000 shares were sold to the public at a public offering price of $87.50 per share, raising net proceeds to the Company of approximately $342.6 million. Goldman, Sachs and Co. acted as the sole manager of the offering." Note: $87.50 is 512% above our average cost per ILMN share of $14.30.

[2008.08.13] Zacks.com on medical devices/supplies: "We currently rate two companies as 'Buys': Hanger Orthopedica and ArthroCare." HGR previous close was $16.67.

[2008.08.12] NeuroMetrix hit a new 52-week low of $1.23. The Waltham-based company "designs, develops, and sells medical devices that aid physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the nervous system and neurovascular disorders in the United States."

[2008.08.12] JP Morgan upgraded US Airways from 'Underweight' to 'Overweight.' LCC previous close was $8.39.

[16 August 2008, top]

[11 August 2008, top]

[11 August 2008, top]

    (1) Illuminia    (2) Hanger Orthopedic  (3) Yahoo!
    (4) SourceForge  (5) iRobot             (6) Google
    (7) Altairnano   (8) Red Hat            (9) US Airways
   (10) Drugstore.com

[2008.08.07] Illumina announced the "pricing of its public offering of 3,500,000 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $87.50 per share. ILMN previous close was $89.25.

[2008.08.05] HX Diagnostics, Inc. announced that it has "expanded its license and development agreement with Nanogen to include the development of additional rapid, point-of-care diagnostics for respiratory infectious diseases. As part of the three-year agreement, the companies will employ the same underlying technology used in their previously announced joint project, a diagnostic for the differential diagnosis of seasonal and pandemic influenza."

On 16 February 2006, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) announced the "formation of a new fund, the KPCB Pandemic and Bio Defense Fund. The goal of the new $200 million fund is to accelerate innovations for worldwide pandemic preparedness and global health over the next three years, with a focus on surveillance and detection, diagnostics, vaccines and drugs." Nanogen is listed as a partner along with the Hong Kong University and Xiamen University.

NGEN previous close was $0.43.

[09 August 2008, top]

I did not have plans to add to our tiny eDiets.com position, but today's trading prompted me to do some speculating.

Financially, eDiets.com is not in good shape. It has a current ratio less than 1.00. But, it has a thin float. DIET closed yesterday at $1.88, but it spiked to $3.25 when the market opened today. For the last three months the average trading volume in DIET has been approximately 52,000 shares.

The PSR (Price Sales Ratio) is 1.57 and under the right market conditions this number could be double what it currently is.

There are 25.1 million DIET shares with approximately 62% of them closely held. The SIR (Short Interest Ratio) in DIET is a whopping 50.4 (3.3% percent of the shares).

I agree with eDiets.com that this fall's holiday season is critically important to them. "eDiets.com is committed to fine tuning the platform and digital subscribers, meal delivery, and e-commerce businesses in order to best prepare for growth in the post-holiday diet season."

Yesterday, eDiets.com announced it will be "presenting at the Canaccord Adams 28th Annual Global Growth Conference at the InterContinental in Boston, MA, August 12-14, 2008." If this presentation produces any demand for DIET shares, then...

[08 August 2008, top]

[05 August 2008, top]

[04 August 2008, top]

[2008.07.25] Soleil upgraded Google from 'Hold' to 'Buy'. GOOG previous close was $475.62.

[2008.07.24] On a day when the DJIA, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 fell 2.43%, 1.97% and 2.31%, iRobot closed at $14.53, up 9%, after reporting financial results. IRBT hit an intra-day high of $15.34, but it wasn't able to hold onto that gain. Volume was two-times average.

[2008.07.23] Illuminia reported that 2nd-quarter 2008 was their 28th consecutive quarter of revenue growth, with total revenues of $140 million. The company announced a 2:1 stock split that will be distributed via a stock dividend. ILMN hit a new 52-week/all-time high of $92.50 before closing at $91.95. [2008.07.23]

[2008.07.23] US Airways followed yesterday's 58.7% increase by closing up another 18.5% at $5.06. LCC hit an intra-day high of $5.23. Volume was 26.9M versus 8.3M.

[2008.07.23] Stewart Enterprises hit a new 52-week high of $9.46 before closing at $9.14. Volume was 5.9M versus 1.0M.

[2008.07.22] US Airways reported quarterly results. LCC closed up 58.7% at $4.27 after hitting an intra-day high of $4.54. Volume was 17.3M versus 7.9M.

[2008.07.22] Service Corp. International wants to buy Stewart Enterprises for $11.00 per share. STEI previous close was $8.00.

[2008.07.22] L-1 Identity Solutions reported that the "value of its State Department contract for a new passport card program has doubled. The company initially estimated the value at $107 million over five years. The upward revision to $215 million during that period results from an expected increase in demand from Americans in border communities. L-1 also said it was awarded an additional $24.8 million over five years for a new border-crossing card program for Mexican visa applicants." ID previous close was $13.37.

[2008.07.22] Spire announced that it has "received a contract from Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) to provide critical test equipment for their certification operations in both the United States and China." SPIR previous close was $10.55.

[2008.07.21] Sun Microsystems announced it was "selected to provide the technology platform to NBC Universal for its Olympic web site, NBCOlympics.com, during the network's coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics from Beijing, China, August 8-24." Perkins Miller, Senior Vice President, Digital Media, NBC Sports and Olympics, was quoted saying: "In 2008, NBCOlympics.com is redefining the Olympic experience and Sun Microsystems has been an important partner in that effort. We have recognized the growing online viewership for the Olympics and have worked with Sun to create a powerful and feature-rich Web experience for NBCOlympics.com." NBCOlympics.com website is supported by 160 Sun Fire X4450 and Sun Fire X4150 servers.

[2008.07.21] Level 3 Communications announced that it has been "selected by Funcom, a leading independent developer and publisher of computer and console games, to be that company's exclusive provider of content delivery network (CDN) services for the Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures online game launch and ongoing content patching. Level 3's content delivery services enable Funcom to deliver game updates during times of extremely high-traffic volumes." LVLT previous close was $2.92.

[25 July 2008, top]

SourceForge owns 11,733,777 shares of Collabnet's Series C-1 preferred stock.

There are 68.47 million LNUX shares (20% insiders; 51.5% institutions [64% of float]).

Each LNUX share contains 0.1713 Collabnet share.

SourceForge has $45.38 million cash (i.e. $0.663 per share), $0 debt and a 6.572 current ratio.

PSR is 1.92 when LNUX priced at $1.58.

Almost 10 million shares traded during the last three trading days of the week ending 27 June 2008 (16% of the float).

Insider buying:
01 July 2008: 35,000 shares $1.60-$1.62
27 June 2008: 30,000 shaers $1.62-$1.65
27 June 2008: 22,000 shares $1.64-$1.66
16 June 2008: 65,000 shares $1.69
13 June 2008: 65,500 shares $1.48-$1.50

[23 July 2008, top]

[22 July 2008, top]

[2008.07.18] This never happens... Napster closed up 27.52% one day after we doubled our position in the stock. NAPS closed at $1.39 after the company became a take-over target.

[2008.07.16] Davenport downgraded Stewart Enterprises from 'Buy' to 'Netrual'. This seems logical given the investment firm initiated coverage on Steward three months ago with a 'Buy' rating.

[2008.07.14] Stewart Enterprises rejected a takeover offer by Service Corporation International (SCI). SCI offered $9.50 per share. SCI said that "access to non-public information to better assess the company's value could have boosted the offer to between $10.25 and $11.25 per share." STEI was up almost 18% closing at $8.23. Volume was 2.44M versus 0.81M.

[19 July 2008, top]

On the 14th, Napster announced a "partnership with Walt Disney Records that includes an exclusive commercial-free 'Best of Disney' radio station featuring music from Disney's world-renowned catalog." The word "exclusive" caught my attention.

We can't own Disney, but maybe we can use Napster to make some Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus money.

[17 July 2008, top]

[15 July 2008, top]

[14 July 2008, top]

[14 July 2008, top]

[2008.07.09] Altair Nanotechnologies was able to hold onto yesterday's 33.8% gain by gaining another 8.76% to close at $2.11 before hitting an intra-day high of $2.27. ALTI is still well below its 52-week high of $5.45. Volume was 1.83 million versus 0.58 million.

[2008.07.08] Altair Nanotechnologies announced the "successful completion of a demonstration and validation program for a two-megawatt 500 kilowatt-hour battery system purchased by AES Corporation." ALTI, which made new 52-week low yesterday, closed up 33.8% at $1.94. Volume was 3.41 million versus 0.51 million.

[2008.07.08] Hanger Orthopedica hit a new 52-week high of $16.76 before closing at $16.60. Trading volume was more than 2-times average.

[2008.07.08] Sun Microsystems hit a new 52-week low of $10.33 before closing at $10.38. Tech Trader Daily at Blogs.Barrons.com had a posting titled "Sun Micro Hits 6-Yr Low; Will They Ever Grow Again?" I say, "Yes."

[2008.07.07] Icahn and Microsoft says there could be a deal if Yahoo! gets a new board and Jerry Yang is replaced as CEO. YHOO was up 12% closing at $23.91. Volume was 2-times average.

[2008.07.07] Novell hit a new 52-week low of $5.66 before closing at $5.74. Novell's cash per share is $4.04.

[2008.07.07] Altair Nanotechnologies hit a new 52-week low of $1.45 before closing at $1.45.

[2008.07.07] Napster hit a new 52-week low of $1.03 before closing at $1.11. Volume was 787,396 versus 184,246.

[12 July 2008, top]

    1. Illuminia (3)      2. Yahoo! (1)      3. Hanger Orthopedic (8) 
    4. SourceForge (2)    5. Google (4)      6. iRobot (5)
    7. Entrust (new)      8. Red Hat (7)     9. Drugstore.com (6) 
   10. LookSmart (new)

[2008.07.01] S&P Equity Research upgraded Yahoo! from 'Hold' to 'Buy.' YHOO was priced at $19.80.

[2008.06.30] Illuminia was been added to the Russell 1000.

[2008.06.30] Citigroup downgraded Level 3 Communications from 'Hold' to 'Sell'. LVLT previous close was $3.12.

[2008.06.30] Citigroup has a 'Buy' rating on Google. Google is Citigroup's "No. 1 choice for the top picks live list -- Citigroup's list of stocks to buy or sell Monday." GOOG previous close was $528.07.

[05 July 2008, top]

[30 June 2008, top]

[2008.06.27] US Airways hit a new 52-week low of $2.30 before closing at $2.45. LCC was unchanged for the day. Volume was 11.5 million versus 6.0 million.

[2008.06.27] Sun Microsystems hit a new 52-week low of $10.77 before closing at $10.96.

[2008.06.27] Hanger Orthopedic hit a new 52-week high of $16.27 before closing at $16.00. HGR was up 6% with volume at 2.6 million versus 0.2 million.

[2008.06.27] MDB Capital Group upgraded SourceForge from 'Neutral' to 'Buy'.

[2008.06.27] Jefferies and Co. upgraded Novell from 'Hold' to 'Buy.' NOVL previous close was $5.92.

[2008.06.27] TheStreet.com downgraded Drugstore.com from 'Hold' to 'Sell.' DSCM previous close was $1.97. I consider DSCM a strong buy when priced under $2.

[2008.06.25] The Federal Reserve left the Fed Funds rate unchanged at 2%.

[2008.06.25] Stanford Research initiated iRobot coverage with a 'Buy' rating. IRBT closed up 13% on the news closing at $14.93.

[2008.06.25] Canaccord Adams upgraded Yahoo! from 'Sell' to 'Hold'. YHOO previous close was $22.04.

[2008.06.25] Two awards were given to Vignette. (1) "Nucleus Research, a global IT research firm, honored NASA with the 2008 Technology ROI Award for the space agency's implementation of Vignette Portal." (2) "Vignette Recommendations was named Best New Web 2.0 Technology by Incisive Media at its inaugural Web 2.0 Innovation Awards presentation in London." VIGN previous close was $12.00.

[2008.06.23] US Airways hit a new 52-week low of $2.32 before closing at $2.44.

[2008.06.23] Thomas Weisel downgraded Yahoo! to "Underweight" from "Market Weight." YHOO previous close was $21.45.

There are news reports going around that Microsoft and Yahoo! are talking again about a deal. YHOO ended up 2.75% at $22.04. Volume was 85.2 million versus 40.3 million.

[2008.06.23] Dutton Associates updated its coverage of Nanogen maintaining a 'Strong Speculative Buy' rating and a $1.00 price target. NGEN previous close was $0.41. Needless to say, we hope Dutton is right.

[28 June 2008, top]

Some potentially good short-term news... the U.S. Army has moved up its timeline for its "$160 billion modernization program" from 2014 to 2011.

[27 June 2008, top]

[26 June 2008, top]

[25 June 2008, top]

We bought the amount amount of LCC shares on 2008.06.11 at $3.14. Therefore, during June of 2008, we have increased our LCC holdings from 85 shares to 385 shares.

[23 June 2008, top]

[2008.06.20] I agree with Schachter about Yahoo! losing Usama Fayyad. "Losing Fayyad is clearly a negative," UBS (UBS) analyst Benjamin Schachter wrote in a June 17 note to investors. YHOO ended the week at $21.99.

[2008.06.19] Stewart Enterprises announced they will buyback an additional $25 million of its stock. To date, the company has bought back about 6.3 million STEI shares at an average price of $7.32 apiece. STEI closed at $7.70.

[2008.06.19] Two insider buys recorded for SourceForge. 65,500 LNUX shares at $1.48-$1.50 per share and 65,000 LNUX shares at $1.69. LNUX closed at $1.50.

[2008.06.19] Dawson James downgraded Aastrom Biosciences from 'Buy' to 'Neutral'. ASTM previous close was $0.38.

[2008.06.17] Illuminia and Hanger Orthopedica both hit new 52-week highs of $82.29 and $15.44, respectively.

[2008.06.17] Jesup & Lamont initiated coverage on Spire with a 'Buy' rating. SPIR previous close was $12.29. For the day, SPIR was up 19.6% closing at $14.70. Volume was 254,798 versus 89,384.

[2008.06.17] Doug Parker, chairman and CEO of US Airways, bought 197,000 LCC shares on 2008.06.16 at about $2.80 per share. He know owns 470,055 LCC shares. LCC closed at $3.26.

[2008.06.16] TheStreet.com upgraded Stewart Enterprises from 'Hold' to 'Buy'. STEI previous close was $7.28.

[2008.06.13] Kaufman Brothers initiated Drugstore.com coverage with a 'Buy' rating. DSCM closed at $2.22.

[21 June 2008, top]

[20 June 2008, top]

[17 June 2008, top]

[16 June 2008, top]

[2008.06.12] Standard & Poor's announced that Trimble Navigation will be moved from the S&P SmallCap 600 to the S&P MidCap 400. TRMB previous close as $36.04.

[2008.06.11] On an absolutely terrible day, Hanger Orthopedic hit a new 52-week high of $15.00 before closing at $14.99. HGR was up 5.8%. Volume was 642K versus 170K.

[2008.06.10] The CEO of SourceForge, Ali Janeab, quit. LNUX previous close was $1.32. It opened at $1.38, which was the intra-day high, and closed at $1.31. Volume was 4.1M versus 250,000.

[2008.06.11] Illuminia announced that it is "among three firms to have pioneered the development of new sequencing technologies and joined the 1000 Genomes Project, an international effort to build the most detailed map to date of human genetic variation as a tool for medical research. The new participants are: Illumina Inc., San Diego, Calif.; 454 Life Sciences, a Roche company, Branford, Conn.; and Applied Biosystems, an Applera Corp. business, Foster City, Calif." ILMN previous close was $78.04.

[2008.06.11] Entrust announced "India's leading credit rating, research, risk and policy advisory company, CRISIL, required a more efficient, cost-effective solution to secure their remote users. To solve the challenge and enable secure communication with their mobile workforce, Entrust, and partner IndusFace Consulting deployed the Entrust IdentityGuard versatile authentication platform and one-time-passcode (OTP) tokens." ENTU previous close was $2.96.

[2008.06.11] Digital Angel announced that its "SARBE division has concluded negotiations for the supply of equipment with a combined value of approximately US$2.7 million to the Malaysian Armed Forces." DIGA previous close was $0.73.

[14 June 2008, top]

iLinc is a Phoenix-based company that "provides Web conferencing and audio conferencing software and services. It develops and sells software that provides real-time collaboration and training using Web-based tools."

At $0.28 per share, iLinc has a market value of just under $10 million. Revenues for the last year were $14.88 million. 25% of ILC shares are closely held.

[12 June 2008, top]

PSR is 0.03. Cash per share is $22.50. Price-to-book 0.30.

The company announced that fuel costs will increase by $2 billion next year.

The last time we bought LCC stock was when it was AWA (America West Airlines) exactly six years ago.

[11 June 2008, top]

I agree with Jonathan Schwartz's view: "Our view is Flash is anything but a flash in the pan - as the price of power continues to increase, and the price of Flash continues to plummet, the combination of Flash, ZFS and true systems innovation will have an even bigger impact on datacenter economics than virtualization."

I also like Sun's focus on BRICA open-source. Where "BRICA" equals Brazil, Russia, India, China and Africa.

[11 June 2008, top]

[2008.06.06] Carl Icahn told Yahoo! that it should offer to sell the company to Microsoft for $34.375 per share. YHOO previous close was $26.36.

[2008.06.06] StemCells announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has "issued Patent Number 7,381,561 claiming the use of additional monoclonal antibodies for the prospective isolation of rare cells from human neural tissue, such as the Company's HuCNS-SC® product candidate (purified human neural stem cells)." STEM previous close was $1.40.

[2008.06.05] Nanogen announced it has been "awarded a new $10.4 million, two-year contract from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." NGEN previous close was $0.40.

[2008.06.04] SourceForge hit a new 52-week low of $1.40 before closing at $1.42.

[2008.06.04] Isotechnika had been doing well, but today the fell 23% closing at 0.93. In other words, ISA.TO is a penny stock again. Volume was 1.234 million versus 260,000.

[2008.06.04] JP Morgan downgraded Trimble Navigation from 'Overweight' to 'Neutral.' TRMB previous close was $40.17.

[2008.06.04] The headline read: "Spire to Provide 25 Megawatt Turnkey Solar Module Manufacturing Line to PLG Power Limited in India." Spire CEO Roger Little was quoted saying: "The photovoltaics market is expanding exponentially in India and is expected to grow by more than 500% in the next few years." SPIR previous close was $13.67.

[07 June 2008, top]

[2008.05.30] US Airways ended the week at a new 52-week low of $3.96. A merger between United Airlines and US Airways has been called off.

[2008.05.29] Susquehanna Financial Group raised their price target on Google to $635 from $600. And, Piper Jaffray kept a 'Buy' rating on Google with a $819 price target. GOOG previous close was $568.24.

[2008.05.29] S&P cut their rating on Level 3 Communications from 'Hold' to 'Sell.' LVLT previous close was $3.45.

[01 June 2008, top]

[2008.05.23] US Airways hit (and closed) at new 52-week low of $4.18, down 20% for the day. Volume was 13.4 million versus 3.6 million.

[2008.05.23] Janus Triton Fund reported they own some Trimble Navigation.

[2008.05.23] Morgan Stanley downgraded Sun Microsystems to 'Underperform'. JAVA previous close was $13.14.

[2008.05.22] Wachovia upgraded Level 3 Communications from 'Underperform' to 'Market Perform.' LVLT previous close was $3.15.

[2008.05.22] Napster cash position was $69.8 million with about 43,631,000 shares (about $1.60 per share). The company reported positive cash flow for the 4th quarter in a row. Revenues for the year were $127.5 million.

[2008.05.21] Mace Security announced the termination of its CEO and MACE closed up almost 18% at $1.80. Volume was 218,000 versus 18,700.

[2008.05.21] US Airways hit a new 52-week low of $5.28 before closing at $5.35. Oil moved about $133 per barrel.

[23 May 2008, top]

[2008.05.20] T. Boone Pickens has purchased 10 million shares of Yahoo!. Pickens also sees $150 a barrel oil happening in 2008.

[2008.05.20] Kratos Defense and Security, which should be in the top 15 but isn't, announced the "award of a contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane to support the Expeditionary Warfare Systems Division. Kratos was one of only two companies selected to compete for task orders under this cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The work will include engineering, logistics, research and development, and program support for a variety of customer programs and projects including air and missile defense systems, missile systems, command and control systems, and sensor systems. This contract will provide for support services to the Department of Defense; and the governments of Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and Turkey under the Foreign Military Sales Program. This 5-year contract has a total estimated value of up to $49.9 mln over the period of performance." KTOS previous close was $1.78.

[21 May 2008, top]

[2008.05.19] Goldman Sacks upgraded Amazon.com to 'Buy.' AMZN previous close was $76.46.

[2008.05.16] Carl Icahn revealed that he has "spent more than $1 billion snapping up 59 million Yahoo! shares and options to give him a 4.3 percent stake in the company. He plans to seek approval from the Federal Trade Commission to acquire up to $2.5 billion in Yahoo stock, including his current holdings." YHOO ended last week at $27.66.

[2008.05.15] Wachovia upgraded Sun Microssystems to 'Outperform.' JAVA previous close was $13.49.

[2008.05.15] Collins Stewart upgraded Yahoo! from 'Sell' to 'Hold.'

[2008.05.07] Entrust announced it will "provide its proven public key infrastructure to the Taiwanese government to help authenticate sensitive biometric information stored on machine readable travel documents (MRTDs) -- also known as ePassports -- which will be available to nearly 23 million citizens by the end of 2008." The headline on the press release read: "Entrust, Hewlett Packard Partner to Deploy Taiwanese ePassports, Authenticate Biometric Data." ENTU previous close was $2.47.

[2008.05.06] Investors were disappointed in Drugstore.com. DSCM hit a new 52-week low of $1.75 before closing at $2.19. The company lowered fiscal 2008 expectations predicting earnings from a loss of $3 million to a profit of $1 million. The company also reported that it needed to find a new CFO.

[19 May 2008, top]

[2008.05.02] Sun Microsystems fell 22.6% after reported 2008 3rd-quarter results.

[2008.05.01] iRobot hit a new 52-week low of $13.19 before closing at $14.31. Volume was 1.4 million versus 0.22 million. The company reported okay earnings, but cautioned about future business. In addition, the company hired a new CFO.

[2008.05.01] Zachs upgraded Hanger Orthopedic to 'Buy'. HGR previous close was $11.80.

[2008.05.01] Sun Microsystems reported 2008 3rd-quarter results. Cash generated from operations was $329 million, and the cash and marketable debt securities balance at the end of the quarter was $3.801 billion. During the third quarter, Sun spent $300 million to repurchase 17.5 million shares of its common stock. There is currently $500 million remaining of the $3 billion share repurchase program announced during Sun's fiscal 4th-quarter of 2007.

[2008.05.01] Sun Microsystems announced it is reducing its workforce by 1,500 to 2,500 jobs.

[03 May 2008, top]

[2008.05.01] Jesup and Lamont downgraded iRobot from 'Buy' to 'Neutral.'

[2008.05.01] We don't own any Exxon Mobil shares, but we found the following headline funny: "Dow Declines After Exxon Disappoints." Exxon Mobil reported a 2008 1st-quarter profit of $10.9 billion.

[2008.04.29] The Federal Reserve lowered the Fed Fund rate from 2.25% to 2%. On 7 August 2007, the rate was 5.25%.

[2008.04.29] LookSmart hit a new 52-week high of $4.56 before closing at $4.39.

[01 May 2008, top]

[2008.04.28] US Airways closed up 20.4 at $8.62. The company is talking with United Airlines about "merging." LCC closed at $8.62, up 20.4% for the day.

[2008.04.28] NeuroMetrix was up 65.5% closing at $2.83. Volume was 4.45 million versus 0.32 million. NURO is still well below its 52-week high of $11.30.

[2008.04.25] Trimble Navigation announced quarterly results and Piper Jaffray upgraded TRMB from 'Neutral' to 'Buy'. For the day, TRMB was up 24.1% closing at $34.90.

[2008.04.24] Digital Angel announced it has "received a significant order through its Signature Industries subsidiary from exclusive Swedish distributor Cordland Marine AB. Digital Angel will initially supply 600 of the new McMurdo FASTFIND MAX G Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) to KSAB, part of the Swedish private pilots association, KSAK (Kungliga Svenska Aeroklubben). As of July 1, 2008, it will become compulsory for pilots of aircraft up to 2000kg to carry a PLB in Sweden. Cordland expects to place further orders before the end of the year." sounds like good news to me. DIGA previous close was $0.62.

[2008.04.24] Vignette hit a new 52-week low after it reported 2008 1st-quarter results. The company did generate $10.1 million of cash flow from operations and it purchased an additional 1.26 million shares of common stock on the open market at an average price of $13.86. The company predicts it will "either lose five cents per share in the next three months or earn five cents per share." VIGN previous close was $11.34.

[28 April 2008, top]

[2008.04.23] Kaufman Brothers initiated iRobot coverage with a 'Buy' rating. IRBT previous close $16.78.

[2008.04.23] Yahoo! reported 2008 1st-quarter results and Wall Street yawned at the report. There are lots of rumors floating around about a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo!.

[2008.04.23] Illumina reported quarterly results and ILMN spiked to a new 52-week high of $81.90 before closing at $79.85. Note: $81.90 was also a new all-time high.

[2008.04.23] StemCells announced that it has been "issued U.S. Patent Number 7,361,505 with broad claims covering human neural stem cells derived from any tissue source, including embryonic, fetal, juvenile, or adult tissue." STEM closed up 23.4% at 1.69.

[23 April 2008, top]

[2008.04.22] Illumina announced that "Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) purchased 11 Genome Analyzers, increasing the organization's total number of the Illumina sequencing systems to 17. As a result of recent enhancements to the Genome Analyzer, BGI researchers will have the capacity to sequence more than two human genomes to 25x coverage per week." ILMN was $73.98.

[2008.04.22] Bruker reported that it "expects to log about $12 million in pretax foreign exchange losses in the first quarter, which will cut its profit for the period by about 6 cents per share. The company also released a first-quarter revenue prediction below average analysts' estimates." Back on 25 March 2008 (i.e. a month ago), BRKR hit a new 52-week of $16.66. Today, BRKR was down 23.1% closing at $11.97. Volume was 4.7 million versus 0.9 million.

[2008.04.22] Dutton Associates updated its coverage of Nanogen and it "maintained a Strong Speculative Buy rating and a $1.00 price target." NGEN previous close of $0.40. If the stock moves to $1.00, it will probably go past $1.00.

[2008.04.21] iRobot announced it "reached a funding agreement with the U.S. Army's Lead Systems Integrator (LSI) of Boeing and Science Applications International Corporation team on the previously determined direction of SUGV acceleration on January 17, 2008 under the Future Combat Systems (FCS) Program. Valued at $6 million, this award adds and accelerates delivery of 25 FCS Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) near-term robots for testing to ultimately provide added capabilities to soldiers in the field. iRobot's FCS Program contract now totals approximately $63 million." IRBT previous close was $17.20.

[2008.04.21] Google was part of an investors group that invested $130 million in Pasadena-based eSolar Inc. eSolar is into creating "solar thermal power plants."

[22 April 2008, top]

[2008.04.18] The Google effect? SourceForge closed at $2.03, up 9.73% The stock opened with a gap and had a flat day, but volume spiked near the end of the day and LNUX increased from $1.90 to $2.03 (up 6.84%). LNUX was down in after-hours trading.

[2008.04.18] Next week Tuesday--Yahoo! reports quarterly results. YHOO closed today at $28.43, up 1.43%. Volume was below the three-month trailing average. YHOO had a gap open and it held the gap for the entire day.

[18 April 2008, top]

From the press release.

   [patient one:  74-year-old male]
   "Prior to the CRC treatment his left ventricular ejection 
    fraction was 10% (the percentage of blood pumped out of 
    the heart with each contraction), below the normal range 
    of 60-75% for a typical healthy person. After the CRC treatment 
    and upon discharge from the hospital in January 2008, this 
    patient's ejection fraction had improved to 25-30% and clinical 
    improvement of his heart failure stage had been noted."

   [patient two:  69-year-old female]
   "Prior to the CRC treatment her ejection fraction was 25-30%, 
    and upon discharge from the hospital in February 2008 her 
    ejection fraction had improved to 45%."

The quality of a drug is a function of many things--age and gender are two of those things.

What if...?

[18 April 2008, top]

[2008.04.16] Spire announced it has "received a contract from Alpex Exports Pvt. to provide a photovoltaic module assembly line for that company's operations in New Delhi, India." SPIR previous close was $16.09.

[2008.04.16] Novell announced it be investing $100 million in India over the next three years. NOVL previous close was $6.06.

[16 April 2008, top]

[2008.04.15] (BUY report) Increased our Sun Microsystems holdings by 33% buying JAVA at $15.03.

[2008.04.15] (BUY report) Increased our SourceForge holdings by 6% buying LNUX at $1.84. PSR is 2.4. The company has almost $0.79 per share in cash with no debt. Insider ownership is 19%, while institutions hold 56%. Short Interest Ratio is 14.6. This is one of our largest investments; therefore, this company better not go belly-up.

[2008.04.15] Digital Angel announced its "McMurdo FASTFIND MAX PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) range, the MAX and the MAX G (with 12-channel GPS), has been awarded Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Type Approval certification, signaling the go-ahead for these PLBs to be sold in the U.S." DIGA previous close was $0.63.

[15 April 2008, top]

[2008.04.14] (BUY report) Increased our Digital Angel holdings by 44% buying DIGA at $0.65.

[2008.04.14] (BUY report) Increased our Altair Nanotechnologies holdings by 25% buying ALTI at $2.27.

[14 April 2008, top]

[2008.04.10] (SELL report) EMC is buying Iomega for $3.85 and we liquidated our IOM position for virtually no gain.

   150, 2.70, Buy,  01/29/2008  +42.6%
   150, 3.32, Buy,  12/18/2007  +16.0%
   100, 3.72, Buy,  11/14/2007  + 3.5%
   100, 4.89, Buy,  10/23/2007  -21.3%
    50, 2.70, Buy,  07/12/2006  +42.6%
   100, 2.52, Buy,  12/19/2005  +52.8%
   100, 2.80, Buy,  04/29/2005  +37.5%
   100, 4.07, Buy,  03/28/2005  - 5.4%
   100, 5.25, Buy,  07/02/2004  -26.7%
   100, 4.92, Buy,  06/02/2004  -21.7%

Kudos to EMC for making a good buy.

[2008.03.27] Spire closed up 25.64% at $16.27. Trading volume was 5-times average. Despite the gain, SPIR is still well below its 52-week high of $26.78. The Company is releasing quarterly results on 2008.03.31.

[12 April 2008, top]

[2008.03.25] Bruker hit a new 52-week high of $16.66 before closing at $16.33.

[2008.03.25] Citi Investment upgraded their Yahoo! from 'Hold' to 'Buy.' YHOO previous close was $27.52.

[2008.03.20] Canaccord Adams initiated Drugstore.com coverage with a 'Buy' rating. DSCM previous close was $2.11.

[2008.03.20] RBC Capital Markets cut its price target on Google to $530 from $675. GOOG previous close was $432.00.

[27 March 2008, top]

[2008.03.18] Bruker hit a new 52-week high of $15.44 before closing at $15.42.

[2008.03.18] NeuroMetrix hit a new 52-week low of $1.67 before closing at $1.75. At least one class action shareholder suit has been filed against the company.

[2008.03.17] EMC upped their bid for Iomega from $3.25 to $3.75.

[2008.03.13] (BUY report) Increased our Drugstore.com holdings by 10.7% buying DSCM at $2.29.

[2008.03.10] EMC wants to buy Iomega for $3.25 per IOM share. IOM previous close was $2.66. Iomega's board did not think it was a fair offer.

EMC Corporation was the market share leader in storage software for the eight consecutive year in 2007 and led the worldwide storage software market in total revenue for the 20th consecutive quarter, according to the latest IDC Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker, March 2008.

[18 March 2008, top]

Prior the market opening on 3/4/2008, 15 of the 40 GDT::Portfolio stocks were within 10% of their 52-week lows. Only 2 of the 40 stocks, Illimunia and Bruker (both Biotech stock), were within their 10% of the their 52-week highs.

[2008.03.04] Jefferies & Co. downgraded their Novell rating to "Hold" from "Buy". NOVL previous close was $7.12.

[2008.03.03] Broadpoint Capital downgraded Altair Nanotechnologies from 'Buy' to 'Neutral'. ALTI previous close was $2.98. We purchased some ALTI last week Friday.

[10 March 2008, top]

[2008.02.29] (BUY report) Increased our Altair Nanotechnologies holding by almost 14% buying ALTI at $2.95. CEO resigned and the stock fell 15%.

[2008.02.29] Stewart Enterprises hit a new 52-week low of $5.96 before close at $5.97.

[2008.02.29] Cray hit a new 52-week low of $4.65 before close at $4.71.

[2008.02.27] NeuroMetrix (NURO) hit a new 52-week low of $2.43 before closing at $2.43.

[2008.02.28] Transmeta rejected a take-over bid of $15.50. TMTA closed at $12.78.

[2008.02.28] It's only a name, but Bruker Biosciences changed its name to Bruker Corp. BRKR previous close was $12.22. Bruker Corporation operates in two segments: life science and analytical systems and international advanced superconductor.

BRKR hit a new 52-week high of $14.72 before closing at $12.87.

[2008.02.27] NeuroMetrix (NURO) hit a new 52-week low of $2.54 before closing at $2.54.

[2008.02.27] Copied from press release. "IBM granted Level 3 licenses to IBM's approximately 42,000 pending and issued patents which cover a broad range of telecommunications services and technologies. In turn, Level 3 granted IBM licenses to those of Level 3's more than 850 pending and issued patents which cover a broad range of information handling systems. LVLT previous close was $2.38.

[2008.02.27] Insider buy recorded at Sun Microsystems. A director bought 25,000 shares of stock buying JAVA at $17.18 to $17.22 apiece.

[29 February 2008, top]

[2008.02.25] NeuroMetrix hit a new 52-week low of $2.75 before closing at $2.79. Volume was 0.35M versus 0.25M.

[2008.02.25] Illuminia hit a new 52-week high of $76.25 before closing at $75.57. ILMN was up 4.93% for the day on volume of 2.1M versus 1.3M.

[2008.02.22] (BUY report) Increased our NeuroMetrix holdings by 71% buying NURO at $2.96.

[2008.02.22] Dutton Associates initiated coverage on Nanogen with a 'Strong Speculative Buy' rating and a 12-month price target of $1.00. NGEN previous close was $0.36.

[26 February 2008, top]

[2008.02.14] (BUY report) Increased our Drugstrore.com holdings by 12% buying DSCM at $2.77.

[2008.02.14] Insider buy at Trimble Navigation. A director bought 20,900 shares for $25.80 to $26.33 apiece.

[20 February 2008, top]

[2008.02.11] (BUY report) Increased our NeuroMetrix holdings by almost 24% buying NURO at $7.41.

Stanford Research downgraded NURO from 'Buy' to 'Hold' and Punk, Ziegel & Co. downgraded NURO from 'Accumulate' to 'Sell.' The company is reporting quarterly results tomorrow.

[2008.02.11] Yahoo! rejected Microsoft's $44.6 billion offer.

[2008.02.08] Amazon.com announced it will buy back $1 billion worth of its shares. AMZN previous close was $70.91.

[2008.02.06] Illuminia reported quarterly results and Canaccord Adams upgraded ILMN from 'Hold' to 'Buy'. For the day, ILMN was up 10.2% to close at $71.50. Volume was 5.8 million versus 1.1 million.

[2008.02.05] Banc of America downgraded Yahoo! to 'Neutral' from 'Buy.' YHOO previous close was $29.33. BofA's target price was $26, but they did up it to $31 despite the downgrade. I enjoyed a comment that was made about BofA's Yahoo! downgrade: "Bank of America should get out of the securities business and focus on what they do best. Inventing new garbage fees and underwriting and packaging bad mortgages to sell to unwary investors."

[2008.02.04] The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) and Colorado-based Level 3 Communications announced that Level 3 has been "named as the Official Live Video and Content Delivery Services Provider for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, to be held Aug. 25-28 in Denver." LVLT previous close was $3.40.

[11 February 2008, top]

[2008.02.01] Riley Investment Management has offered by Transmeta for $15.50 per share. TMTA closed at $12.74 two days ago. Yesterday, the day prior to the announcement, TMTA closed at $13.46.

[2008.02.01] Microsoft has offered to by Yahoo! for $44.6 billion (or about $31 per share). For the day, YHOO was up 48% closing at $28.38. Volume was 437.5 million versus 31.4 million.

[2008.01.30] (BUY report) Increased our Yahoo! holdings by 9.4% buying YHOO at $19.00.

[2008.01.30] Citigroup downgraded Yahoo! to 'Hold' from 'Buy.' This downgrade was issued after Yahoo! released quarterly results. YHOO previous close was $20.81.

[04 February 2008, top]

[2008.02.01] Riley Investment Management has offered by Transmeta for $15.50 per share. TMTA closed at $12.74 two days ago. Yesterday, the day prior to the announcement, TMTA closed at $13.46.

[2008.02.01] Microsoft has offered to by Yahoo! for $44.6 billion (or about $31 per share). For the day, YHOO was up 48% closing at $28.38. Volume was 437.5 million versus 31.4 million.

[2008.01.30] (BUY report) Increased our Yahoo! holdings by 9.4% buying YHOO at $19.00.

[2008.01.30] Citigroup downgraded Yahoo! to 'Hold' from 'Buy.' This downgrade was issued after Yahoo! released quarterly results. YHOO previous close was $20.81.

[01 February 2008, top]

[2008.01.29] JP Morgan initiated coverage on Illuminia with an 'Overweight' rating. ILMN previous close was $65.15.

[2008.01.29] Canaccord Adams initiated coverage on Google with a 'Buy' rating. GOOG previous close at $555.98.

[2008.01.29] Jefferies upgraded Novell to 'Buy' from 'Hold.'

[2008.01.28] (BUY report) Increased our Novell holdings by 15% buying NOVL at $5.98.

[2008.01.28] (BUY report) Increased our Google holdings by almost 17% buying one share at $558.36.

[29 January 2008, top]

   Ups
   ===
   Trimbal Navigation +25.12%
   Nanogen +12.63%
   Sun Microsystems +8.77%
   Yahoo! +8.40%
   StemCells +7.69%
   Altair Nanotechnologies +7.01%
   Alcatel Lucent +5.72%
   Hanger Orthopedica +5.29%
   Drugstore.com +5.26%
   Katos +5.26%
   Amazon.com +5.0%

   Downs
   =====
   iRobot -6.02%
   Bruker Biosciences -5.31%

Every stock that up more that 5% today could be down 5% (or more) tomorrow.

Despite a good day overall, SourceForge remains less than 6% about its 52-week low.

[28 January 2008, top]

Orthologic hit a new 52-week low of $1.05 before closing at $1.07.

Yahoo! hit a new 52-week low of $18.72 before closing at $20.01.

Red Hat hit a new 52-week low of $16.82 before closing at $17.81.

Nanogen hit a new 52-week low of $0.27 before closing at $0.285.

Alcatel Lucent hit a new 52-week low of $5.54 before closing at $5.94.

[2008.01.22] The Fed Funds Rate was cut to 3.5% from 4.25%.

[2008.08.22] (BUY report) Increased our Drugstore.com holdings by 14% buying DSCM at $2.85.

[23 January 2008, top]

[2008.01.16] (BUY report) Increased our Google holdings by 20% buying one GOOG share (yes 1 share) at $611. We now own a whopping 6 GOOG shares with an average cost per share of $362.

[2008.01.16] (BUY report) Increased our Altair Nanotechnologies holding by 12.5% buying ALTI at $3.21.

[2008.01.16] Sun Microsystems announced it was buying MySQL for $1 billion. Kudos to Sun!

[2008.01.16] Trimble Navigation hit a new 52-week low.

[17 January 2008, top]

[2008.01.14] Illumina was downgraded by Caris and Company from 'Buy' to 'Above Average.' ILMN previous close was $70.51.

[2008.01.11] Illumina was upgraded as follows: GARP Research 'Neutral' to 'Buy'; Lehman Brothers 'Equal-weight' to 'Overweight'; UBS 'Neutral' to 'Buy'.

[2008.01.10] Illumina hit a new 52-week high of $75.20 before closing at $70.02. The company announced they had settled some patent disputes and the removal of this uncertainty caused ILMN to close up 15.83%. Volume was 10.2 million versus 1.1 million.

[2008.01.10] Rumors hit Wall Street again that Microsoft might bid to buy Yahoo!. YHOO's depressed shares were up 6.78% on slightly higher than average trading volume.

[14 January 2008, top]

[2008.01.04] NASDAQ dropped 98.03 points, or 3.77%, to 2504.65. It was the worse one-day percentage drop since March 17, 2003 - and the biggest one-day drop for the Nasdaq in terms of points since September 17, 2001, the day trading resumed after 911.

[2008.01.03] Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey upgraded NeuroMetrix from 'Neutral' to 'Buy.' NURO previous close was $9.58.

[2008.01.02] ThinkEquity upgraded Yahoo! from 'Accumulate' to 'Buy.' YHOO previous close was $23.26.

[2008.01.02] Citigroup upgraded Amazon.com from 'Hold' to 'Buy.' AMZN previous close was $92.64.

[10 January 2008, top]

"The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.7 per cent to 13,043.96 points, its worst percentage decline on the first trading day of a year since 1983. The S&P 500 closed 1.4 per cent lower at 1,447.16 and the Nasdaq Composite shed 1.6 per cent to 2,609.63."

In addition, the price for a barrel of oil hit the $100 mark.

[03 January 2008, top]

                        End 2007      Start 2007
                        ========================
   DJIA................ 13,264.82     12,463.15
   Nasdaq..............  2,652.28      2,415.29
   S&P 500.............  1,468.36      1,418.30
   Fed Funds Rate...... 4.25%         5.25%
   Gold................ $833.30       $634.30 per ounce
   Google.............. $691.48       $460.48 per GOOG share
   Yahoo!.............. $ 23.26       $ 25.54 per YHOO share
   Gas................. $  2.85       $  2.35 per gallon (Tempe)
   Oil................. $ 95.98  (up 57% YTD) per barrel
   Median Home Price... $295,000 (down 10.6% YTD) (Valley of the Sun)
   CPI................. To Be Recorded on 16 January 2008
   Copper.............. 303.05 cents per pound
   Cotton..............  68.01 cents per pound

Stocks Stuffer Archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003

[01 January 2008, top]