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While broad market buyers pulled back the reins this morning, SmallCap bulls bought Nanometrics (NANO) on an Oppenheimer upgrade, Align Technology (ALGN) because it settled its legal dispute and then partnered with its adversary and Global Sources (GSOL) who issued Q2 09 numbers today. Today's a good day to be a contrarian.
Gaining 17% ($0.60) in early trading, Nanometrics Inc., (NANO) http://www.nanometrics.com/ set a new market cap of $77 million and is currently trading on the Nasdaq in the $4.15 range on an analyst upgrade. NANO has a 3-Month average daily trading volume of 39,063 shares and that jumped past 116,765 shares early in the session.
NANO got an upgrade this morning from Oppenheimer from 'perform' to 'outperform' and that continued the good news for August. NANO released its Q2 09 earnings late on July 30 and that started August off with a lot of new buyers. NANO reported a 44% increase in revenues and a nearly 50% improvement in gross margins from 28% to 41%. NANO also reported the completion of the acquisition of the Unifire product line.
On August 3, NANO announced a multiple system order for its Caliper Mosaic overlay metrology system. The systems will be used in OEM production and are expected to be delivered and qualified in the third quarter of 2009. Sales are always a good thing.
Then to keep the momentum, On August 11, NANO received The R&D 100 Award that recognizes the 100 most technologically significant products introduced in the past year. Add today's upgrade and to the list and NANO is literally on a roll.
NANO makes and sells thin film, optical critical dimension, and overlay dimension metrology systems for high-volume semiconductor manufacturing process control. NANO also makes and sells standalone manual and semi-automated systems used to monitor material characteristics of various silicon and compound semiconductor devices.
At $4.15, NANO is pennies within its 52-week high of $4.24 set on 08-15-08 and is far above its 52-week low of $0.80 set on 12-04-08. At $4.15, NANO is above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. NANO has trailing twelve month revenues of $68 million. Its shares out versus float ratio is a little lopsided, but not enough to raise a red flag.
Also posting a healthy gain this morning of 18.07% ($1.83) is Align Technology Inc., (ALGN) http://www.aligntech.com/ easily surpassing its 3-Month average daily trading volume of 814,694 shares this morning and topping 1,767,923 shares as of this writing. ALGN is currently trading in the $12 range on the Nasdaq with a new market cap of $790 million.
Lawsuits bring about adversaries... and partners...
The jump in the shares this morning came on news that ALGN made a deal to end all pending litigation with Danaher's (DHR) Ormco unit. ALGN said it will make a cash payment of $13 million to Ormco while Danaher will take a 10% ownership stake in ALGN for approximately $77 million.
Then, ALGN announced the two companies had reached a seven-year deal to develop and market an orthodontic product that combines ALGN's Invisalign system with Ormco's Insignia's orthodontic brackets. The settlement comes after a jury in June found ALGN's Invisalign product infringed on an Ormco patent. From enemy to friend: Good.
ALGN makes and sells Invisalign system for treating the misalignment of teeth.
At $12, ALGN is off its 52-week high of $13.74 set on 09-02-08 and is well above its 52-week low of $4.88 set on 10-24-08. At $12, ALGN is above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. ALGN has trailing twelve month revenues of $295 million a trailing twelve month EPS of $1.17. ALGN is widely held by institutions. Its shares out versus float ratio is near-parity.
Finally this morning, getting a nice gain of 7.78% ($0.53) on Q2 09 numbers is Global Sources Ltd., (GSOL) http://www.globalsources.com/ now trading on the Nasdaq in the $7.34 range with a new market cap of $326 million. GSOL has a 3-Month average daily trading volume of 135,732 shares and was close to meeting that threshold by mid-session.
GSOL Q2 09 numbers posted today revealed a GAAP EPS of $0.11 and Non-GAAP EPS of $0.15. GSOL reported it had increased cash and securities to $143.7 million and there was no debt. That will get investors in during these times. Q2 revenues dropped a little year-over-year; from $54.2 million compared to $63.7 million.
I like the GSOL business model. GSOL is a facilitator of trade with China. The GSOL primary business model uses English-language media to facilitate trade from China to the world. The secondary business segment utilizes Chinese-language media to enable companies to sell to and within China. GSOL provides sourcing information to volume buyers and integrated marketing services to suppliers. GSOL helps a community of over 829,000 active buyers' source more profitably from complex overseas supply markets.
GSOL enables suppliers to sell to hard-to-reach buyers in over 240 countries. It delivers information on 4.3 million products and more than 196,000 suppliers annually through 14 online marketplaces, 13 monthly magazines, over 100 sourcing research reports and 12 specialized trade shows which run 29 times a year across 10 cities. Suppliers receive more than 81 million sales leads annually from buyers through GSOL. In mainland China, GSOL has over 2,500 team members in more than 40 locations, and a community of over 1 million registered online users and magazine readers for its Chinese-language media.
At $7.34, GSOL is off its 52-week high of $11.19 set on 08-15-08 and is above its 52-week low of $3.30 set on 03-05-09. At $7.34, GSOL is pennies above its 50-day moving average and well above its 200-day moving average. GSOL has trailing twelve month revenues of $201 million and a trailing twelve month EPS of $0.38. GSOL is widely held by insiders. Its shares out versus float ratio is out of line. I would like to see more shares in the public float.
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