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SmallCap stocks Spire Corp., (SPIR), RINO Intl., (RINO) and Techwell Inc., (TWLL) rode right along with this morning's clear 'buy' signal in the broad markets that pushed all the indices into positive territory as oil dipped below $66 a barrel, the dollar fell a bit giving some strength to commodities and the bulls began looking for good news this week on housing prices, manufacturing, consumer confidence and construction spending.
BigCap and SmallCap traders today quickly turned on last week's frenetic up and down see-saw investing trend with assertive purchasing moves this morning that were perhaps, in the SmallCap markets anyway, driven by GenTek (GETI) being bought by American Securities, Aspect Medical (ASPM) being bought by Covidien (COV) and Gander Mountain (GMTN) going private with a buyback. Buy; seems the keyword for today.
Gaining 25.47% ($1.22) this morning is Spire Corp., (SPIR) http://www.spirecorp.com/ currently trading on the Nasdaq in the $6.01 range. SPIR has a new market cap of $50 million. SPIR has a 3-Month average daily trading volume of 29,100 shares and traded 7 times that volume an hour and a half into today's session topping 229,424 shares.
SPIR got some inertia this morning when 51% share owner Uni-Chem of South Korea reached an agreement with Hynix Semiconductor (the world's second-largest memory chip maker) to take over a Hynix plant in Eugene, Oregon that is closed. Uni-Chem will pay $50 million for the plant and the surrounding land.
The Uni-Chem CEO said Saturday his company plans to use the plant to make solar cells as part of the company's new business associated with SPIR (Uni-chem currently provides leather to South Korea's Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors as well as to luxury goods companies Burberry and Coach).
SPIR however caught investor's eyes the day before on Friday the 25th when management announced the Company, now based in the U.S. in Bedford, MA, has established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Spire Taiwan LLC that will have an office in Hsinchu County, Taiwan. SPIR, which manufactures solar equipment, will now have a Pacific Rim headquarters for equipment service operations and will support customers throughout China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines, as well as others in the region.
The SPIR branch will also be staffed with multilingual sales and service engineers. SPIR will also be establishing a regional spare parts inventory warehouse in Taiwan. Recently, Taiwan established the Taiwan PV Standards Committee and has initiated government incentives to stimulate the growth of the Country's solar industry. SPIR also operates in Europe and North Africa.
At $6.01, SPIR is below its 52-week high of $15.64 set on 10-01-08 and is above its 52-week low of $2.94 set on on11-26-08. At $6.01, SPIR is ahead of both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. SPIR has trailing twelve month revenues of $72 million. SPIR is widely held by insiders and institutions. Its shares out versus float ratio is near-parity.
Gaining 11.89% ($2.06) this morning is RINO International Corp., (RINO) http://www.rinogroup.com/ currently trading in the $19.41 range. RINO has a new market cap of $484 million. RINO has a 3-Month average daily trading volume of 512,992 shares and it doubled that volume two hours into today's session.
RINO is one of those stocks that is a puzzle for investors. It was $2 in March and only traded a couple of thousand shares a day; not very liquid, but cheap. Then as the March come-around began for everyone, RINO took off. It passed $11 in June and passed $17 in August. At today's price, that's a 950% gain and its trading a half a million shares a day.
A lot of analysts, pundits and investors missed this stock and just as many picked up on it in March and have followed it since. RINO is in the environmental protection business. On September 8, RINO announced it had commenced installation for its new proprietary ammonia based desulphurization system (the "DXT system") on a system at Hunan Lianyuan Iron and Steel Company. The total contract value was $14 million with the installation scheduled to be completed during the second quarter of 2010. The next day, research house Rodman & Renshaw initiated coverage with a 'Market Outperfrom' rating.
But why should a producer of proprietary and patented wastewater treatments and high temperature anti-oxidation systems for iron and steel manufacturers in the People's Republic of China gain that much value in six months. Thus; the puzzle. RINO is majority owned by insiders, has an astronomical sales growth and a wide spread on its margins.
Perhaps that's a piece of the puzzle, past performance, but I have to think that the overwhelming incentive to such a gain in value has to be China's having to deal with industrial pollution as its moves from some of the dirtiest growth the world has ever seen to establish a capitalistic base to a more responsible player on the world stage. In any case, if you're a good puzzle-solver and even though the money may already be 'made' in RINO, there could be a lesson here for future investing.
RINO is headquartered in Dalian, the People's Republic of China and at $19.41 today, it will set a new 52-week high beating the previous high of $18.73 set on 09-24-09. At $19.41, RINO is far above its 52-week low of $2 set on 03-26-09. RINO is ahead of both its 50-day and 200-day averages. RINO has trailing twelve month revenues of $162 million and a trailing twelve month diluted EPS of $1.32. RINO has approximately 25 million shares outstanding and only 5 million shares in the public float. Again, it is majority owned by insiders. Stability must be a part of the puzzle as well.
Gaining 3.64% ($0.39) this morning is Techwell Inc., (TWLL) http://www.techwellinc.com/ which is currently trading in the $11.10 range on the Nasdaq. TWLL has a new market cap of $239 million. TWLL has a 3-Month average daily trading volume of 79,032 shares and it topped 221,253 3 hours into today's session.
TWLL jumped this morning in part due to its Friday announcement that management had revised the Company's Q3 2009 guidance. TWLL noted an increased demand from security surveillance and automotive markets that are central to its business.
TWLL now projects revenue of $17 million to $18 million, an increase of 42% to 50% from the second quarter ended in June. On July 30, TWLL estimated third-quarter revenue at $16 million to $17 million or an increase of 33% to 42% from Q2 09 revenues of $12 million. TWLL plans to hold its regularly scheduled earnings conference call on October 29, 2009 after the market close to discuss financial results for Q3 09.
TWLL makes and sells mixed signal integrated circuits for security surveillance and automotive 'infotainment' markets worldwide. Its products enable the conversion of analog video signals to digital form and perform digital video processing to facilitate the display, storage, and transport of video content. TWLL also provides security surveillance products that integrate various functions to display, store, and transport analog video signals from security surveillance cameras; and liquid crystal display products.
At $11.10, TWLL will beat its previous 52-week high of $10.98 set on 09-25-09. At $11.10, TWLL is far above its 52-week low of $4.92 set on 11-21-08. At $11.10, TWLL is ahead of both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. TWLL has trailing twelve month revenues of $57 million and a trailing twelve month diluted EPS of $0.14. Its shares out versus flat ratio is close enough to parity not to raise any red flags about stability.
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