Posts for Ticker ‘AVCT’

Time Warner, AOL & Others See Index Fund Activity (RBC, ALGT, AOL, TWX, AVCT, EMR)

Standard & Poor’s is making several index changes in the coming trading days.  While Regal Beloit Corp. (NYSE: RBC) and Allegiant Travel Co. (NASDAQ: ALGT) are moving up in the S&P Indexes, the big S&P decision is around the AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) spin-off from Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX).  Other companies directly or indirectly affected in these changes are Avocent Corp. (NASDAQ: AVCT), and Emerson Electric Corp. (NYSE: EMR).  Our take on this is what it means for the amount of buying and selling from index funds.
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Posted on: December 2, 2009 – 11:31 am in ETF, Index, Mutual Funds, , , , , ,

Top Day Trader Alerts (AVCT, ETFC, CIT, AIG, IRET, CRUS, NTRI)

These are this Tuesday morning’s top day trader alerts and active trader alert stocks for Monday.  We have more details on volume and price analysis on each stock covered at VSInvestor.com:

Avocet Corporation (NASDAQ: AVCT) is surging to new recent highs on a buyout on exponential trading volume.

E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC), CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), and American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) are all trading higher this morning on no significant news besides market sentiment.

Investors Real Estate Trust (NASDAQ: IRET) is trading down about 4% on a secondary offering.

Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) was very active in the upside gainers last night on raised guidance and is still indicated higher.

NutriSystem Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRI) is rocketing on the Wal-Mart pact, partly because of one monster short interest.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week for reminders of the top day trader alerts, analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO’s, key secondary offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.

JON C. OGG

OCTOBER 6, 2009

Posted on: October 6, 2009 – 8:50 am in After-Hours Activity, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert, , , , , , ,

Top Pre-Market Stock News (January 7, 2008)

Below is a snapshot of some of the key impact news affecting stocks in pre-market trading this Monday, January 7, 2008:

  • AllianceBernstein (AB) noted as a hidden gem in Barron’s cover story.
  • Answers Corp. (ANSW) announced a collaboration with Nokia for Series 40 and S60 mobile devices.
  • Avocet (AVCT) lowered guidance
  • Biogen-Idec (BIIB) and Elan (ELN) say that the safety data continues to support a favorable benefit-risk profile for TYSABRI.
  • Celgene Corp. (CELG) trading up 5% after guidance is in-line for 2007 and issued new guidance for 2008.
  • CNET (CNET) had a Jana Partners-led investor group take a 21% stake and try to oust the board of directors.
  • Diana Shipping (DSX) trading up almost 2% on positive Barron’s article over weekend.
  • 8X8 Inc. (EGHT) introduced a free international mobile calling plan with its new Packet8 MobileTalk trial.
  • hhgregg (HGG) reaffirmed 2008 EPS guidance of $0.95 to $1.03 vs. $1.00 est.; s-s-s up 3%.
  • JA Solar (JASO) announced a 3 for 1 stock split.
  • Jefferies (JEF) issued earnings warning.
  • Krispy Kreme (KKD) announced it has elected a new CEO.
  • Microsoft (MSFT) said at "CES" it had 100 million licenses sold of Windows Vista; 17.7 million Xbox 360’s, 10 million Xbox live users; will have new content downloads.
  • Napster (NAPS) will sell music with less copyright protection as MP3 files.
  • Nice Systems (NICE) received multi-million dollar orders from 2 of the top-3 US banks for fraud alert.
  • Rogers Communications (RCI) raised annual dividend from $0.50 to $1.00 and put 2008 revenues $11.2 to $11.5 Billion versus $11.25 Billion estimates; announced share buyback.
  • Schnitzer Steel (SCHN) missed earnings and revenue targets; stock trading down 1% so far.
  • Sony (SNE) introduces new tri-recording video Camcorder at "CES".
  • TASER (TASR) unveils its new leopard print TASER C2 personal protection device at the 2008 International Consumer Electronic tradeshow in Las Vegas today.
  • Zumiez (ZUMZ) said December s-s-s was +3.9%, but guided lower; shares down over 1%.

Jon C. Ogg
January 7, 2007

Posted on: January 7, 2008 – 8:32 am in Pre-Market Activity, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Week of Stock Buybacks & Repurchase (COH, FIC, MIR, AVCT, HOT, AGO, HEES, CBG, TER, FDO, RWT, LH, VIGN, CSCO)

Coach (NYSE:COH) has decided that the recent stock crush is a good opportunity to announce a $1 Billion share buyback plan. This represents roughly 30 million shares, or 5-times average volume; $12 Billion market cap.

Fair Isaac (NYSE:FIC) approved a $250 million share buyback plan, compared to a market cap of $2 Billion.

Mirant Corp. (NYSE:MIR) had one of the more impressive buybacks and share retirement plans announced, although its shares fell 8% because of losses.  Mirant’s total return plan is some $4.6 Billion, which includes $1 Billion in open market purchases and a $ 1Billion accelerated buyback plan.  This has been under review for the Special Situation Investing Newsletter.

Avocent Corp. (NASDAQ:AVCT) added 3 million shares to its stock repurchase program; Avocent has repurchased 11.2 million shares of the 12 million shares previously approved. The buyback equates to $75 million more in buybacks if completed, compared to a $1.25 Billion market cap and it represents about 8 days of trading volume.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:HOT) raised its dividend and added $1 Billion to share buybacks, compared to a $10.5 Billion market cap.  This one has also been under review for the Special Situation Investing Newsletter.

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Posted on: November 9, 2007 – 12:39 pm in Stock Buybacks, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What To Expect Ahead of VMware’s VMWORLD Conference

Even if VMware (NYSE:VMW) sees its stock go sideways or even if it gets soft from here, it has a long way to go before many would be able to say this was not a successful IPO.  The valuations are now just too high for the sector to longer have a focus in I.T.  This is also true regardless of the VMware stock conundrum we noted recently. If you haven’t read up on and learned much about virtualization, as an investor you should read up on it as the next ‘next thing’ in software and IT. If you look at the competitors that some existing partners (and owners) are invested in, you’ll really understand.

One week from today, and possible over the coming weekend, we should start seeing many more companies announce "Partnering with VMware" or "Supplying VMware" or "Strikes key partners for virtualization" and the like.  Next week from September 11 to September 13 is the VMWORLD 2007 Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and the roster is a Who’s Who in Techland.  There is also a Technology Day symposium ahead of it. 

Keynote speakers here will be from such tech heavyweights as John Chambers of Cisco Systems (CSCO), Patrick Gelsinger of Intel Corp. (INTC), and Hector Ruiz of Advanced Micro (AMD).  Other sponsors are major tech giants like Dell (DELL), H-P (HPQ), NEC, IBM (IBM), and of course the parent EMC (EMC).

Network Appliances (NTAP) is also a sponsor, and it already issued its press release to signal its involvement.

Some of the gold sponsors that are not quite as prominent are BEA Systems (BEAS), Brocade (BRCD), EDS (EDS), Emulex (ELX), Sun Microsystems (JAVA).  Further down the list of sponsors and exhibitors are BMC Software (BMC), Avocent (AVCT), CA (CA), Citrix Systems (CTXS) (which also recently made a virtualization buyout of XenSource), Novell (NOVL), Patni Computer Systems Ltd. (PTI), QLogic (QLGC), Microsoft (MSFT), Symantec (SYMC), and more.

What is interesting is that this virtualization conference includes almost all of VMware’s key competitors.  So they are not blocking out competitors, at least not this year.  For whatever it is worth, there are many overlaps out there in what would be deemed partners and competitors.  It has XenSource, Microsoft, Symantec, and others. 

It also sold out of sponsor and exhibitor opportunities some time ago.  Here is a full list of exhibitors.  It is probably safe to assume that many more virtualization partnerships will be coming ahead of, out of, and after this key industry event.

Stock Tickers: VMW, EMC, CSCO, INTC, AMD, DELL, HPQ, NTAP, IBM, BEAS, BRCD, EDS, ELX, JAVA, SUNW, BMC, AVCT, PTI, CA, CTXS, NOVL, QLGC, MSFT, SYMC

Jon C. Ogg
September 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Posted on: September 4, 2007 – 12:24 pm in Software, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,