Lattice Semiconductor (NASDAQ: LSCC) issued an earnings and revenuewarning last night saying its expects a sequential revenue drop of 12%to 16% rather than flat to -4%.  With shares close to $1.00 this mightbe all in the stock, but it joins the semiconductor warnings game.Shares are up a tad, but less than 1% at $1.28; 52-weektrading range is $1.04 to $4.00.  Stock trades at under tangible bookvalue as long as its cash balances hold up.

United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) predicted that revenue would declineby 3.3% in 2009 and it put earnings at plus or minus 5% and expects theeconomic deterioration to cause a drop in revenues next year.  $4.90 isthe pivot point that is the basis of a +/-5%, and First Call hadestimates at $5.03 for 2009.  Shares are actually up by a fraction of apercent after spending the first 25 minutes of trading and thepre-market in negative territory.

Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ: STLD) guided for earnings to come at a loss of-$0.35 to -$0.40 versus $0.15 First Call consensus estimates.  What thecompany said was that it believes the drop in scrap metals has run itscourse and may start to improve. Wall Street is trusting this as sharesare up less than 1% at $10.85.  Its 52-week trading range is $5.18 to$40.92.

H.B. Fuller (NYSE: FUL) warned and gave guidance of $0.24 EPS versus$0.39 First Call consensus estimates.  The adhesives and chemicals company said revenues were put at roughly$350 million, versus $367.58 million as the First Call consensus.Shares are down 1.5% at $13.84.

Waters Corp. (NYSE: WAT) is one of the few which is trading way off onearnings warning.  The analytical instrument manufacturer warned thatrevenue and earnings would be under expectations as new orders werenot completed.  Waters sees revenue at $410 million to $420 million for thequarter, yet analysts were looking for almost $450 million and thelowest estimate was $441 million.  This one has also taken four analystdowngrades this morning from Deutsche Bank, Leerink Swann, Baird, andCowen.  Shares are down 16% at $35.14.

Based upon what we are seeing from the trends in earnings warnings, if a company is only going to fall short of estimates by 10% or 15% then they better get that data out while Wall Street is still in a decent mood before the holiday bills and pink slips coincide with each other in January and February.  We did not include the financial firms nor any companies who are entirely tied to the auto industry in any of this analysis.  The reasons should be evident as to why.

Jon C. Ogg
December 12, 2008

• H.B. Fuller (NYSE: FUL) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
• Och-Ziff Capital (NYSE: OZM) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
• Repsol YPF (NYSE: REP) Raised to Buy from Hold at ING; Raised to Hold from Sell at Soc-Gen.
• Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) Started as Outperform at KBW.
• Dover (NYSE: DOV) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
• Emerson Electric (NYSE: EMR) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
• Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
• GlaxoSmithkline (NYSE: GSK) Cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
• Medarex (NASDAQ: MEDX) Started as Sell at Merriman Curhan Ford.
• Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) Cut to Hold from Buy at ING.

Jon C. Ogg
November 14, 2008

• AudioCodes (AUDC) cut to neutral at Merrill Lynch.
• Becton Dickinson (BDX) cut to neutral at Credit Suisse.
• H.B. Fuller (FUL) cut to neutral at JPMorgan.
• Lehman Brothers (LEH) cut to neutral at Goldman Sachs; cut to Hold at Citigroup.
• Medarex (MEDX) cut to neutral at JPMorgan.
• NVIDIA (NVDA) cut to equal weight at Lehman.
• PDL BioPharma (PDLI) cut to underweight at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
September 11, 2008

• AMBAC Financial (ABK) was down big after it came clean and ran the gauntlet, but this one went from bad to worse by closing down a whopping 38% at $12.97.  Ouch!
• Akamai Tech (AKAM) closed down almost 4% at $25.88; prior 52-week range was $25.97 to $59.69….. so much for pushing out online video and media faster being a solid business.
• Citigroup (C) just cant catch a break with a new year low close of $26.24.  Maybe being a stronger manager might help Pandit.  Dear Vikram, Welcome to running a troubled public company.
• California Pizza Kitchen (CPKI) after its warnings closed down over 17% at $10.10; $12.20 to $25.23 prior range.
• eBay (EBAY) was a bit of a shock to see, although if you take the retail, tech, and internet angle it’s not a huge stretch.  The good news is that this was only intra-day with a low of $27.67 at the open.  It closed up 0.5% at $28.09 and the prior 52-week range was $27.85 to $40.73.
• F5 Networks (FFIV) took a downgrade to Hold from Buy at Jefferies; shares closed down 8% to $20.68; prior range $21.07 to $46.94.
• H B Fuller (FUL) manufactures and markets adhesives and specialty chemical products worldwide.  It fell 11.3% to $19.57; prior low $20.56; posted lower Q4 earnings
• NYMEX Holdings (NMX) closed down 7.5% at $103.98, 52-week range is $105 to $148; maybe that raised CEO bonus might not be the best idea.
• PMI Group (PMI) won’t find any sympathy anywhere, shares closed down 7.5% at $7.77.
• Quicksilver (ZQK) can’t be a big shock since it warned on earnings yesterday; -5.3% at $7.04.
• Scientific Games (SGMS) wasn’t just bad, it was a slaughter at -30% to $19.45; prior range $28.15 to $40.70.  It lost a contract and took a downgrade.
• Stereotaxis (STXS) received an additional approval from FDA but it warned on earnings in a significant manor that caused an investor and trader revolt in what was already down and out.  It fell down 22% to $8.84; prior range $9.66 to $16.88.
• Tetra Technologies (TTI) is a geographically diversified oil and gas services company that provides niche products and services focused on well completion and on late-life production enhancement and decommissioning.  Maybe that business isn’t great anymore?  It warned Monday about a shortfall and today was just as bad or worse. This one closed down 8% to $14.38, and its prior 52-week range was $14.38 to $30.20.
• Xerox (XRX) hit intra-day 52-week lows and if this isn’t an endorsement of a slowdown in the big business climate then what the hell is?  Shares hit a low of $13.59, but closed barely over the prior 52-week low at $13.88; 52-week range $13.84 to $20.18.
• Zebra Tech (ZBRA) can’t be too big of a shock with retail slowing and its bar code tech is retail dependent (sans-drugs); stock fell almost 3% to $30.17; prior range is $30.95 to $42.50.

Jon C. Ogg
January 16, 2008

• Kenexa (Nasdaq: KNXA) announced on November 8, 2007 that it authorized the repurchase of up to 2 million shares of the company’s common stock, and it has already completed the repurchase of over 1 million shares since the approval of the repurchase program.  It only has about 25.5 million shares outstanding.
• Edgewater Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: EDGW) announced that its Board of Directors authorized the purchase of up to $5.0 million of the Company’s common stock; approximate market cap is $87 million.
• Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ: HBIO) has authorized the repurchase of up to $10 million of its common stock over the next 24 months; shares rose 5% Friday and its market cap is $130 million.
• Pomeroy IT Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:PMRY) authorized a somewhat unusual program to repurchase up to $5 millionof its outstanding common stock.  In addition, the Board adopted awritten trading plan under Rule 10b5-1 of the Act to facilitate therepurchase of its common stock. Rule 10b5-1 allows the Company topurchase its shares at times when the Company would not ordinarily bein the market because of the Company’s trading policies or thepossession of material non-public information. Pomeroy’s market cap is$86 million.
• Alcon, Inc. (NYSE:ACL) approved a new share repurchase program that allows for the purchase of up to $1.1 billionof shares of outstanding common stock targeted over a twelve monthperiod.  The $1.1 billion share repurchase program provides for a purchase of shares from the company’s majority shareholder,Nestle, S.A. Specifically at a rate of three shares fromNestle for every share acquired by the company in the market. This new program is in addition to thecompany’s existing repurchase program, under which, as of December 5,2007, the company has remaining authorization to repurchase up to 2.8million shares. It is anticipated that the new repurchase program willcommence in the first quarter of 2008.
• The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) authorized an additional $1 billionfor purchases of its common stock through 2009, and this is in additionto the approximately $300 million remaining under previous sharerepurchase authorization. With a $1.3 Billion total plan, it has $17Billion market cap.
• International Assets Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:IAAC) renewed the Company’sshare repurchase authorization for an increased amount of $5,000,000 in shares of common stock.  The renewal will be effective January 1, 2008. IAAC’s market cap is $226 million.
• 4Kids Entertainment (NYSE:KDE) saw its shares rise on a 1 million share buyback of around $11 million; market cap is $157 million.  FULL REVIEW with value investor synopsis.
• Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) was the biggy of the week, but you wouldn’t haveknown it if you saw the stock trades.  It is reinstating its sharerepurchase plan and will spend up to $10 Billion in share buyback.  Its market cap is $55.8 Billion.  FULL COVERAGE.

Many of these buyback stocks are under review for our Special Situation Investing Newsletter.

Here are some of the big updates or increases that took place this week:

• ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) has been making updates on itsongoing share buyback in the E.U.   Under the new share buy-backprogram announced on 13 September 2007, Arcelor Mittal has repurchased4,450,000 shares from 29 November until 5 December 2007 at an averageprice of EUR 48.7403 and for a total amount of EUR 215,773,685.00.
• Penson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: PNSN) has authorized the expenditure of up to an additional $12.5 millionto buy back Company common stock, bringing its total buybackauthorization since July 2007 to $37.5 million.  As previouslyreported, during Q3 & Q4, Penson has bought a total of 1,474,503shares, equal to approximately 6% of shares outstanding in the initialrepurchase plan.
• Celadon Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDN) completed its 2 Million share buyback and authorization an additional 2 Million Share Buyback through December 3, 2008; it has 23.76 million shares outstanding.
• H.B. Fuller Company (NYSE:FUL) recently completed its $100 million share repurchase planthat was announced in July and approximately 3.6 million shares ofcommon stock were repurchased; its market cap is $1.56 Billion.
• Health Grades, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGRD) gave an update on itsstock repurchase program: From November 12 through December 3, 2007, itpurchased an additional 309,600 shares on the open market at an averageprice of $5.48 a share.  As of December 3, it has purchased 1,570,554shares of its common stock on the open market at an average price of$4.78 a share. The aggregate purchase price is approximately $7.5million.  Based on it stock repurchase program of 3 million shares intotal, HealthGrades remains able to purchase an additional 1,429,446shares.
• Templeton Russia and East European Fund, Inc. (NYSE:TRF)authorized management to withdraw the Fund’s proposed secondaryoffering of the Fund’s shares of common stock AND authorized managementto reinstate the Fund’s open-market share repurchase program, which wassuspended in connection with the Fund’s proposed secondary offering.This closed-end fund has 5.44 million shares outstanding.

Here was the FULL COVERAGE of our Buyback Summary from Monday Dec. 3:
The Day In Stock Buybacks (SMTC, ASI, EQR, DFS, LCUT, IBM, CPT)

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.