Webster Financial (WBS) Bank needs to raise cash. Falls to $21.77 from 52-week high of $46.40.
Pfizer (PFE) Concerns about product pipeline. Sells down to $18.45 from 52-week high of $27.33.
Nokia (NOK) Drop in consumer spending will hurt cellphone sales. Trades down ot $26.36 from 52-week high of $42.22.
Syntax Brillian (BRLC) CEO is out. Crushed down to $.51 from 52-week high of $7.14.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Syntax-Brillian Corporation (NASDAQ:BRLC) is up to some more changes today. The company has appointed Greg Rayburn as Interim-CEO with an effective date of June 4, 2008. It says that Rayburn will replace James Ching Hua Li on an interim basis, who will take an indefinite leave of absence from the company to address personal issues.
Under Board approval granted on June 4, 2008, Mr. Li will be compensated according to the original terms and conditions of his employment agreement during his leave of absence and will continue to serve as a director of the Company.
Rayburn was appointed Syntax-Brillian’s Interim Chief Operating Officer on April 16, 2008 and is a Senior Managing Director and the Practice Leader of FTI Palladium Partners, the interim management practice of FTI Consulting, Inc.
He has previously been CEO of International Outsourcing Services, LLC from 2007 to 2008; Chief Executive Officer of Muzak Holdings LLC from 2005 to 2006; Chief Operating Officer of aaiPharma Inc. from 2004 to 2005; Chief Restructuring Officer of WorldCom, Inc. from 2003 to 2004; and Chief Executive Officer of Sunterra Corporation from 2000 to 2002.
Syntax-Brillian shares are down some 5% at $0.70 today in the first 25 minutes of trading and shares met the 52-week low this morning. Its 52-week trading range is $0.69 to $7.14. Eighteen months ago this was a $10.00 stock.
The Company also announced the resignation of two directors:
Man Kit (Thomas) Chow, effective May 28, 2008;
and Christopher C.L. Liu, effective May 30, 2008.
This stock is one we have had under question for far too long to think much good is happening there.
Jon C. Ogg
June 5, 2008
These are some of the top analyst calls that we are focusing on this Tuesday morning in pre-market trading hours:
Jon C. Ogg
April 22, 2008
Jon Ogg is a producer of and editor for both the Special Situations newsletter and the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter for 247WallSt.com; he can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
Aventine Renewable Energy (NYSE: AVR) Bad earnings and liquidity issues. Down to $6.79 from 52-week high of $20.85.
Life Time Fitness (NYSE: LTM) Bad outlook from 2008. Sells off to $30.40 from 52-week high of $65.09.
Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX) Forecast is below Wall St. numbers. Falls to $46.44 from 52-week high of $58.63.
Blackstone (NYSE: BX) Environment getting worse for private equity. Drops to $15.25 from 52-week high of $38.
Syntax Brillian (NASDAQ: BRLC) Falls on problems with creditors. Down to $.83 from 52-week high of $9.04.
Cbeyond (NASDAQ: CBEY) Investors not happy with quarterly numbers. Sells down to $15.58 from 52-week high of $46.51.
Douglas A. McIntyre
American International Group (NYSE: AIG) Warns about more potentia write-offs and bad financial controls. Falls to $44.52 from 52-week high of $72.97.
PNM Res (NYSE: PNM) Numbers miss Wall St. estimates. Drops to $13.31 from 52-week high of $34.28.
CNA Financial (NYSE: CNA) Profits drop on investment losses. Shares sell off to $25.17 from 52-week high of $51.96.
Prudential NYSE: PRU) Industry woes and still slipping from earnings. Down to $66.76 from 52-week high of $103.27.
UBS (NYSE: UBS), Allstate (NYSE: ALL), and HSBC (NYSE: HBC) also all hit new lows.
Neurometrix (NASDAQ:NURO) Appears one of the company’s medical devices did not get approval. Falls to $5.25 from 52-week high $12.10.
Syntax Brillian NASDAQ: BRLC) Delays filing results. Drops to $1.88 from 52-week high of $9.08.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Even after a management quasi-shuffle in earlier months, Syntax-Brillian Corp. (NASDAQ:BRLC) has learned to keep disappointing.
Early this morning the distributor of Olevia LCD televisions cut its sales targets as its China business changes to a royalty-based model. It now expects sales for the current quarter to be in a range of $155 to $175 million. Unfortunately for shareholders, that compares to $242.4 million in the year-ago quarter and estimates of just over $300 million. The company has thus also lowered its fiscal June 2008 targets as well, but we won’t bore you with any further details.
We cannot blame a company for having to change its model, and we cannot blame a company if it has troubles merely in quarter meeting expectations. That is life in the investment world. But some companies, regardless of who runs them almost seem to have a culture of disappointing. That culture seems to be prevalent at Syntax-Brillian, and we’ve warned about its trust issues in the past.
Shares are down another 8% today at $3.00 and have traded as low as $2.87, and surprisingly haven’t put in new 52-week lows. Its 52-week trading range is $.76 to $11.70. This is one of those instances where if you had the news ahead of time you might be expecting new lows.
If we covered this in our "10 Stocks Under $10" Letter, it probably wouldn’t be with much enthusiasm. In fact, well you get the idea.
Jon C. Ogg
November 28, 2007
ACAD started as Hold at Citigroup.
ALB raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
AMB raised to Buy at B of A.
APD cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
BAC started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.
BDN cut to Neutral at B of A.
BIIB cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
BRLC cut to Neutral at R.W.Baird.
CBS cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
CNH cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
CYPB started as Outperform at FBR.
ELN started as Underperform at FBR.
FRX raised to Hold at Citigroup.
MDCO raised to Buy at UBS.
MON removed from Goldman Sachs Conviction Buy List.
MPG cut to Sell at B of A.
NOK cut to Mkt Perform at JMP Securities.
NVT raised to Hold at Deutsche Bank (ooops); cut to Neutral at UBS.
ONXX cut to Peer Perform at at Bear Stearns.
PDLI raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
PLD raised to Buy at B of A.
RATE cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
SLG cut to Neutral at B of A.
STEI started as Buy at B of A.
UBS raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
VAL cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
WAG cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs (late Monday call); cut to Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
Jon C. Ogg
October 2, 2007
Enterra Energy (ENT) Second big daily drop after suspending dividend. Down to $1.63 from 52-week high of $10.30.
Bearingpoint (BE) Management consultants. Not doing a very good job of it. Drops to $4.51 from 52-week high of $9.00.
Navigant Consulting (NCI) Financial and regulatory consultancy company to do reorganization, may hit financial statement. Consulting must not be a very good business. Down to $12.55 from 52-week high of $22.63.
Animal Health (AHII) Distributor of animal health products posts earnings and Wall St. is not happy. Falls to $8.78 from 52-week high of $15.74.
Syntax Brillian (BRLC) LCD TV maker still dropping after weak numbers. Down to $3.58 from 52-week high of $11.70.
Knight Capital (NITE) Wall St. unhappy that NITE owns a hedge fund. Shares keep moving down. Hit $11.73 from 52-week high of $21.78.
Douglas A. McIntyre
This week’s "Corporate Gaffe of the Week" should actually be shared by several companies.
What may be the blue ribbon winner is Cephalon (NASDAQ:CEPH). Reports noted that the company sent out a "Dear Doctor Letter" warning that its pain management drug FENTORA for cancer patients has a pretty severe side effect: Death! How ironic is it that a pain drug causes death, or that a cancer patient would die from a pain aid rather than cancer? The real problem is if you look at the company website, Cephalon was just touting the positive study results on FENTORA not even a month ago.
When an analyst at a bulge bracket brokerage firm downgrades a key financial stock, it can actually pull down that same brokerage firm’s stock. This happened when Merrill Lynch downgraded shares of DJIA component American Express (NYSE:AXP). Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) shares fell over 2% at one point Friday morning in sympathy with American Express, so that took away about $1.7 Billion in market cap from Merrill Lynch stock. The good news is that the brokerage stocks continued their rise and Merrill’s stock recovered. Butchers can chop off their own fingers if they take too big of cuts at a time.
TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) announced that over 6 million of its client accounts had personal contact information taken in a data hack, and customers have received unwanted email ads that the company disclosed in its SPAM investigation. This is just a runner up because it could have been far worse.
Syntax-Brillian (NASDAQ:BRLC) is no runner-up, it really screwed up after it delayed its earnings by a day. It wasn’t the report from the last quarter that hurt it, but the guidance and extraordinary back-items did hurt. Oh yeah, and the CFO left the company. Ouch.
The worst timed analyst call on Wall Street this week: A.G.Edwards on Cardica (NASDAQ:CRDC). Shares in Cardica (CRDC) fell of a cliff after an A.G. Edwards analyst downgraded the stock on muted enthusiasm for its new surgical product. The fellow must have felt a bit embarrassed after the stock popped 20% initially on news the company "received a key European approval for its new device for connecting blood vessels during heart bypass surgery." This call wasn’t the analysts fault, but was probably still a problem. In the financial markets you can be right on your call and accurate in your prediction, but you can still go bankrupt because of other issues.
I have always known that the way the current ethanol mandates in the US were implemented and how they are mandatory was a slick sales job at best, even though I am a supporter of alternative and renewable energy. But a report surfaced this week that gave the "Climate Change" crowd a jump over the "Global Warming" crowd. Apparently, those who claim to have lower emissions are, well, exaggerating or just lying.
Who said there is no such thing as a funny side of Wall Street?
Jon C. Ogg
September 14, 2007
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) Telecom equipment merger has become train wreck. Drops to $8.96 from 52-week high of $15.43.
Nortel (NT) Down in sympathy with ALU. Falls to $16.32 from 52-week high of $31.79.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (KKD) Company looks like it is heading for extinction. Down to $3.01 from 52-week high of $13.93.
King Pharmaceuticals (KG) Loss on patent ruling still driving this to ground. Down to $11.67 from 52-week high of $22.25.
New York Times (NYT) Pains of the newspaper industry. Falls to $19.92 from 52-week high of $26.90.
Syntax Brillian (BRLC) Company cuts guidance and CFO leaves. Drops to $3.98 from 52-week high of $11.70.
Avid Technology (AVID) Media content production company takes a header. Down to $22.55 from 52-week high of $40.68.
Level 3 (LVLT) Big networl provider has a ton of high-yield debt. Falls to $4.41 from 52-week high of $6.80
Douglas A. McIntyre
According to Reuters, Sprint (S) will launch a wireless shopping network to enhance its revenue.
Reuters writes that supply worries are keeping the price of crude high.
Reuters writes that a federal court stayed part of a ban on import of certain handsets containing Qualcomm (QCOM) chips.
Reuters writes that Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) has cut its full year revenue targets.
The Wall Street Journal writes that the head of the UAW said the setting up a health fund run by the union with money from the Big Three is something that he would consider.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Carlox Ghosn defended his decision to run both Renault and Nissan.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Sun (JAVA) would install Microsoft (MSFT) Windowns on some of its servers.
The Wall Street Journal found that private equity firms make most of their money from management fees that they charge their investors.
The Wall Street Journal writes that a fall in imports of Chinese goods could hurt some corporate profits.
The New York Times writes that European car makers are betting that US consumers will accept diesels as an alternative to Japanese hybrids.
The FT writes that the Nintendo Wii has passed the Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox as the leading game console in total sales.
Barron’s writes that the CFO of Syntax-Brillian (BRLC) resigned and shares fell.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Syntax-Brillian Corporation (NASDAQ:BRLC) is seeing its shares punished in after-hours trading. Just yesterday morning it delayed its earnings report by a day and it gave no reason, so this drop after-hours is going to be viewed with even more skepticism after the problems of guidance and its CFO leaving. The current report might have been fine, but Wall Street isn’t giving this company the benefit of the doubt. Not at all.
Wayne Pratt, its chief financial officer, will resign effective September 30, 2007 to take a position working with a longstanding colleague at a start-up company located in Tempe, Ariz.
The company posted the following: GAAP EPS $0.11 after basic earnings of $0.12; Revenues $205.3 million; estimates were $0.12 and $198.1 Million. That $205.3 million is up 243% from revenue of $59.8 million in the year-ago quarter. Full year revenue was $697.6 million, up 261% from revenue of $193.0 million for the year ended June 30, 2006.
GAAP net income for the quarter was $8.4 million, compared with a net loss of $5.5 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006. GAAP net income for the year ended June 30, 2007 was $29.8 million compared with a net loss of $18.9 million for the previous year. Consolidated gross margins of 20.2% for the quarter ended June 30, 2007 represented an 800 basis point improvement from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006.
You can read on to see the company’s exceptions, but shares closed down 2.5% in regular trading at $6.13 today; and that after a $0.51 drop yesterday from delaying its numbers. Shares are down roughly 25% after-hours at $4.55. Its 52-week trading range is $4.45 to $11.70. Its CEO, Vince Sollitto, has been criticized for stock offerings right after great news, and he is probably getting ready for some criticism again. We noted the doubt about it before.
Here are the main issues or details in the release:
Syntax-Brillian Corp. (NASDAQ:BRLC) is seeing its shares going bonkers this morning. After the open shares are up close to 20% at $6.65 and it has already traded close to a full day’s trading volume. The company increased its revenue guidance to a new range of $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion from its prior forecast of $950 million to $1.1 billion. It maintained revenue guidance of $190 million to $210 million for the June-end quarter, and gross margins will be within or above the top half of the range of 15% to 17% that it had previously forecasted.
Syntax-Brillian expects to report its financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended June 30, 2007 no later than the second week of September. That is a pretty long ways out for a quarterly report. As a reminder this stock has a HUGE short interest with more than 17 million shares listed in the June short interest, which was listed as more than half of the float at the time. Also, this company has made TWO secondary offerings in a manner where you have some trust issues with management.
If you read through this release, part of the increase is due to an accounts receivable issue from South China House of Technology. You’ll have to read through the press release wording, because the way this is written the verbage could be considered ‘up for interpretation.’
Jon C. Ogg
July 16, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
(ACL) Alcan’s buyout bid by Alcoa is reportedly getting big interest from larger names such as Rio Tinto and others.
(BRLC) Syntax-Brillian filed to sell 25.6M shares, although the shelf was telegraphed with earnings last week.
(DCX) DaimlerChrysler is selling a majority stake in Chrysler to Cerberus Capital for $7.7 Billion; Chrysler will maintain 19.9% stake.
(FACT) First Albany is recapitalizing and will receive a $50M investment from Matlin Patterson.
(GE) GE’s NBC unit could or should merge with Yahoo! (YHOO) according to WSJ.
(GILT) Gilat Satellite $0.13 EPS vs $0.11e.
(INFT) Inforte gets a $4.25 cash buyout from Business & Decision.
(MMC) Marsh & McClennan announced $500M accelerated share buyback program.
(MRK) Merck received and FDA Approvable letter of its NDA for EMEND.
(MWA) Mueller Water names new CFO.
(MYL) Mylan Labs is acquiring Merck KGaA’s generic operations for about $6.7 Billion.
(NAT) Nordic American Tanker $0.85 EPS vs $0.83e.
(NAVR) Navarre is selling its independent music distribution business.
(PLXS) Plexus CFO retiring.
(QTWW) Quantum Fuel signed an agreement to acquire a 24.9% stake in a German solar company.
(SORC) Source Interlink to acquire PRIMEDIA’s Enthusiast Media unit for about $1.2 Billion.
(SYNF) Synergy Financial being acquired by New York Community Bancorp (NYB).
(TRMK) Trimark is paying $85M to acquire DATA RETURN from Saratoga Partners.
(ULBI) Ultralife Battery accepts modified order from last week lowered from $6.9M to $2.4M.
(USBE) US Bioenergy $0.08 EPS vs $0.21e.
(VAS) VIASYS being acquired by Cardinal Health (CAH) for $42.75.
(WMT) Wal-Mart is expanding electronics offerings and will include Skype equipment.
Jon C. Ogg
May 14, 2007
(AAPL) Apple’s talks about the Beatles are reportedly close to being settled.
(ALL) Allstate is going to stop selling homeowners insurance policies in California.
(ALU) Alcatel-Lucent earnings came out, forecasts 10% revenue gains; shares trading up 1.5% in overseas trading.
(AMGN) Amgen trading down another 3% pre-market after 4 downgrades after negative FDA news yesterday.
(BMY) Bristol-Myers Squibb settled the DOJ Plavix investigation.
(BOT) CBOT may now be considering the ICE bid over the CME bid according to WSJ.
(BRLC) Syntax-Brillian fell 15% after missing earnings and issuing even more shares in offering.
(CRXX) CombinatoRx noted positively in Business Week.
(DNDN) Dendreon trading down 5% after conference call.
(FL) Foot Locker shares fell almost 10% on an earnings warning.
(HELE) Helen of Troy $0.30 EPS vs $0.27e.
(JOBS) 51job traded up 7% after beating expectations.
(MOVI) Movie Gallery -$0.47 EPS vs -$0.53e.
(NVDA) NVIDIA trading up 5% after beating earnings and strong guidance.
(NWS) News Corp could reach $30.00 if it buys Down Jones according to Business Week.
(STI) Sun Trust Banks saw enough call option buying activity yesterday that it is being considered potentially as takeover speculation.
(THQI) THQ Interactive fell 4% after outlook disappointed the bulls.
(WCRX) Warner Chilcott $0.23 EPS vs $0.18e.
(WDC) Western Digital is likely to see its multiple expand according to Barron’s.
(WEN) Wendy’s largest holder is trying harder to get the company to sell itself.
Jon C. Ogg
May 11, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
On tonight’s Sell Block on CNBC’s MAD MONEY, Jim Cramer reviewed many of his picks you need to sell:
He said the CEO of Syntax-Brillian (BRLC) is one he doesn’t trust and he’s against the stock right now. If you read my own commentary regularly then this may sound familiar after I said they can’t be trusted.
HealthSouth (HLS) is one where Cramer is no longer on the fence and you have to sell it. The debt credit spreads are bad.
Because of the potential backlash on drug stocks, he wants to take the 16% gain on Novo Nordisk (NVO).
He wants to stick with McDermott (MDR) at $75, Foster Wheeler (FWLT) sell at $100, Fluor (FLR) at $115.
Dynegy (DYN) is being run well and he doesn’t think it needs to go down.
Cisco Sytems (CSCO) is one he liked repeatedly and he thought it would go up and it didn’t; But Cramer said he is not going negative and he is saying to not sell it. He would be a buyer if you haven’t bought. As a reminder this was Cramer’s #3 Top Growth Pick for 2007.
Jon C. Ogg
May 10, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
Syntax-Brillian Corporation (BRLC-NASDAQ) reported revenue of $162.9 million, up 257% from revenue of $45.7 million in the year-ago quarter. GAAP diluted net income per share was $0.09 for the third quarter of fiscal 2007 compared with a diluted net loss per share of $0.26 for the third quarter of fiscal 2006. First Call estimates were $0.12 non-GAAP and $167 million revenues, so this is being viewed as a shortfall. Adjusted EBITDA was $15.5 million compared with negative $2.9 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2006. Adjusted EBITDA for the nine months ended March 31, 2007 was $49.2 million compared with $403,000 for the comparable period of the prior year. Consolidated gross margins of 18.1% for the quarter ended March 31, 2007
Here is the second problem, a Securities Offering; AGAIN!: Syntax-Brillian announced that it plans to offer approximately $150 million and certain of its stockholders plan to offer approximately $22 million of shares of Syntax-Brillian common stock in an underwritten public offering. Merrill Lynch is the book-running manager; UBS will be co-lead manager; Robert W. Baird, Canaccord Adams, and Brean Murray, Carret & Co. will serve as co-managers. Net proceeds to Syntax-Brillian are intended to be used for general corporate purposes, including the payment of a portion of outstanding indebtedness. Syntax-Brillian anticipates completing the public offering prior to its June 30, 2007 fiscal year end.
Long DSO’s: At March 31, 2007, accounts receivable and due from factor totaled $221.0 million for total days sales outstanding ("DSOs") of 122.1 days. This compares with 73.9 DSOs at March 31, 2006 and 78.6 DSOs at December 31, 2006. Included in accounts receivable at March 31, 2007 was $170.8 million of accounts receivable from Asia, where standard industry terms are 120 days. Accounts receivable and due from factor, excluding the Asian receivables, totaled $50.1, million which represents approximately 45.7 DSOs at March 31, 2007 compared with 73.9 DSOs at March 31, 2006 and 66.8 DSOs at December 31, 2006.
GUIDANCE: For the quarter ending June 30, 2007, Syntax-Brillian anticipates revenue in the range of $190 million to $210 million, predominately from sales of LCD TVs on shipments of approximately 240,000 to 270,000 units. Gross margins for the quarter are anticipated to be in the range of 15% to 17%. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007, Syntax-Brillian anticipates revenue in the range of $682 million to $702 million, predominately from sales of LCD TVs on shipments of approximately 970,000 to 1.0 million units. Gross margins for the full fiscal year are anticipated to be in the range of 16% to 18%. For the calendar year ending December 31, 2007, Syntax-Brillian anticipates revenue in the range of $950 million to $1.1 billion, and gross margins in the range of 16% to 18%.
Jim Cramer probably is thinking that since the CEO has done two offerings now that this guy may not be that trusted. Unless this CEO has some real rabbits in his hat, he sure looks hard to trust and this may now be relegated to a "story stock." Shares closed down 2% at $8.41 in normal trading and they are down another 15% at $7.09 in after-hours. This will represent roughly 3-month lows if this level holds.
Jon C. Ogg
May 10, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
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