52-Week Low Club (ARTC, CORL, GEOY, HPGP, HLND, HRC, PDLI, SNN, TTWO)

There are plenty of 52-week lows out there for the picking.  These are some of the major lows we saw today which we have seen.  Some are on specific news, and some are just on continued selling.  ArthroCare Corporation (NASDAQ: ARTC), Corel Corp. (NASDAQ: CORL), GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY), Hiland Holdings GP, LP (NASDAQ: HPGP) and Hiland Partners, LP (NASDAQ: HLND), Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HRC), PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: PDLI), Smith & Nephew (NYSE: SNN), and Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) are among today’s burnt stocks. 

Here are some brief explanations on each stock:

• ArthroCare Corporation (NASDAQ: ARTC) was down over 50% and that prior$11.90 low may be a figure for the history books now.  It expandedrestatements of financial statements and withdrew previous adjustments;and it disclosed subpoenas for production of documents.  Just whatevery investor wants to hear.
• Corel Corp. (NASDAQ: CORL) broke under its old $3.01 lows, down about70% from highs.  Too bad that old merger deal never worked.
• GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY) fell another 5%.  Satellite imagerycontracts may still be lucrative, but supporting the business is not acheap endeavor.
• Hiland Holdings GP, LP (NASDAQ: HPGP) and Hiland Partners, LP (NASDAQ:HLND) both blew through prior lows.  Wachovia cut it, seems not allMLP’s are created equally.
• Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HRC) put in a new 52-week low.  So muchfor medical products being recession-proof, so much for that break-upbeing a great one.
• PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: PDLI) is spinning off its biotech unit andshares were down over 10% today as the company is being booted out ofthe S&P Mid-Cap 400 Index.  This one’s nickname is "Pidly" as theticker acronym.  Looks like the nickname may be the surname.
• Smith & Nephew (NYSE: SNN)… so much for the knee and hipreplacements trends.  Oh well, other medical products have been bitingthe dust on this list of lows as well.
• Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) fell again.  That warning the otherday was just brutal.  Signing the Rockstar team is only worth somestability it seems.  Unfortunately, because of the magnitude of thedrop and because of actual GAAP LOSSES this only looks cheap becauseits stock is off so much.

Jon C. Ogg
December 19, 2008