24/7 Wall St. » MIPS

Chip Stocks Following Intel’s Lead (INTC, AMD, TXN, NVDA, MRVL, BRCM, QCOM, ARMH, MIPS)

Paul Ausick — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 16:09:14 +0000

This morning’s announcement from Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) that it would miss its third-quarter revenue forecast has cast a pall over many other chip makers. A few have avoided taking a hit today, but not by much.

Chipmakers more closely associated with PCs and servers are getting the worst of it. Intel itself is down 3.4% at $24.24 in a 52-week range of $19.16 to $29.27.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is down about 3.7% at $3.52 in a 52-week range of $3.43 to $8.35.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) is down 1.6% at $29.09 in a 52-week range of $25.46 to $34.24.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) is down 4.4% at $13.12 in a 52-week range of $11.47 to $16.90.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) is up 0.9% at $10.52 in a 52-week range of $9.98 to $16.86.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) is essentially flat at $36.13 in a 52-week range of $27.59 to $39.66.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) is down 0.5% at $62.34 in a 52-week range of $46.40 to $68.87.

ARM Holdings plc (NASDAQ: ARMH) is down 0.1% at $26.24 in a 52-week range of $21.64 to $31.55.

The single biggest gainer among chipmakers is MIPS Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) which is up 1.4% at $7.40 after posting a new 52-week high today of $7.50 on more buyout hopes.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Semiconductors, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: AMD, ARMH, BRCM, featured, INTC, MIPS, MRVL, NVDA, QCOM, TXN

MIPS Takes Out New High on Continued Buyout Hope

Jon C. Ogg — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:34:58 +0000

MIPS Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) has been on a major run of late, and shares hit a new 52-week high this morning. We have seen four consecutive days of gains, as this closed at $6.37 back on August 30 and now shares are up at $7.41. This move is based on the hope of a buyout, and the trading volume has been more than 1 million shares per day for each of the past four trading days. The average volume is usually about 700,000 shares or so.

Bloomberg reported back in April that the struggling processor design firm had hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) to find a buyer. Just this week an article at Seeking Alpha updated that situation.

Now this morning as of 10:17 a,m. EST, we have seen a whopping 3,016 contracts trade in the September $8.00 call options trade hands. The open interest was only 1,042 contracts, and the 360,000 shares traded so far today makes the options volume on a fully leveraged basis nearly the same as the stock volume.

The market cap for MIPS is only $393 million, but it still trades at close to four-times its book value. The company also has no debt.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Active Trader, Rumors, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: GS, MIPS

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (T, AMZN, NOK, GOOG, CMG, FAST, RAD, MSW, CBSH, JBHT, CHKE, JPM, WFC, OAK, MIPS, EGO, AVID)

Paul Ausick — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:05:52 +0000

Markets opened slightly higher this morning and about an hour before the markets close all three major indexes are more than 1% higher. The report on new unemployment claims was weaker than expected (our coverage here), but better news from Europe, especially lower Italian bond yields, gave the market a lift. There is also some expectation that China’s GDP report tonight will be strong, indicating that the world’s second-largest economy is still growing. The US dollar index fell today, now down -0.64% at 79.288. The GSCI commodity index is up about 0.7% at 679.53, with virtually all commodities higher on the lower greenback. WTI crude oil closed up 0.9% at $103.64/barrel, and Brent crude trades up 1.22% at $121.65/barrel. Gold settled up 1.2% today, at $1,680.60/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 181 points to 12,986.43 (1.41%), the NASDAQ rose more than 39 points (1.3%) to 3,055.55, and the S&P 500 rose 1.38% or nearly 19 points to 1,387.57.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) raised to ‘overweight’ at JPMorgan; Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) started as ‘neutral’ at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys; Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) cut to ‘hold’ at SocGen; Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) started as ‘buy’ at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys; and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) reiterated as ‘buy’ and target price raised to $480 at Argus.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Fastenal Corp. (NASDAQ: FAST) is down -1.8% at $48.73; Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) is up 0.03% at $1.71; Mission West Properties Inc. (NASDAQ: MSW) is down -0.06% at $9.55; and Commerce Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: CBSH) is up 2.2% at $40.00. After the markets close today we will hear from Google (earnings preview here), J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT), and Cherokee Inc. (NASDAQ: CHKE) among others. Before the markets open tomorrow morning we get earnings from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) (more coverage here).

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Oaktree Capital Group LLC (NYSE: OAK) is down about -1.3% at $42.43. The investment management firm held its IPO today. More coverage here.

MIPS Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) is up about 27.5% at $6.64. The chip maker is reportedly seeking a buyer. More coverage here.

Eldorado Gold Corp. (NYSE: EGO) is up about 12.5% at $14.45. The junior gold miner announced plans to double production in five years.

Avid Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) is down more than -17% at $8.51. The media tools company announced that it would have an operating loss in the first quarter.

Stay tuned for Friday. New York Fed President William Dudley and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke are giving speeches. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

8:30 a.m. – Consumer price index
8:55 a.m. – University of Michigan/Reuters consumer sentiment index

Paul Ausick

Filed under: Active Trader, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AMZN, AVID, CBSH, CHKE, CMG, EGO, FAST, GOOG, JBHT, JPM, MIPS, MSW, NOK, OAK, RAD, T, WFC

MIPS Rumored Buyout May Be Fully Valued Already, Patent Wild Card (MIPS)

Jon C. Ogg — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:41:37 +0000

MIPS Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) is a small enough company that many investors do not even know about. Shares are surging by 22% to $6.40 on the day on reports that Bloomberg has said that the firm hired Goldman Sachs to go find a buyer for the company. Even after the pop the market cap is under $340 million according to Yahoo! Finance data.

MIPS says that it provides industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking, and mobile applications. The move has created some 4+ million shares and that is already 5-times normal trading volume.

To show some of the problems here, the Thomson Reuters target is only $0.02 EPS for all of the fiscal 2012 which ends in June. The 2013 target is only $0.13 EPS. Revenues are only expected to be $61.4 million this year and $67.5 million in 2013. What is interesting is that the consensus price target is only $6.63 and that is only a few percent higher than today’s adjusted price. The company’s only saving grace is that the 52-week range is $3.87 to $10.95.

The company has $110 million in cash and short-term cash equivalents and it only lists its goodwill as $565,000 and its intangible assets are $1.88 million.

Here is the key… the patents!!! We looked at the MIPS patent portfolio and it is extensive as you can see here. What the value is depends upon who is looking at them. Until this is confirmed, we would treat it as a rumor.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Consumer Electronics, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mergers and Buy Outs, Rumors, Semiconductor, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: MIPS

After-Hours Top Earnings & Event Stock Movers (BRCM, BWLD, KEYN, LDK, MIPS, REGN, RFMD, SFSF)

Jon C. Ogg — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:40:55 +0000

We have many after-hours movers after earnings and other reported events. We are tracking moves in Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD), Keynote Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: KEYN), LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (NYSE: LDK), MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN), RF Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: RFMD), and SuccessFactors, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFSF).

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) was one we were having mixed emotions in ahead of earnings. In the current quarter, sales were put in a range of $1.75 to $1.85 billion and that was a disappointment. Shares are down over $3.00 or more than 8% at $37.13 on more than 2.2 million shares in the after-hours.

Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) beat earnings substantially at $0.81 EPS versus a Thomson Reuters figure of $0.73 EPS. Same-store sales were up and it is opening 100 new locations. For some reason the company did not introduce “The Ring Stinger” as the hottest wing sauce available. Shares are up 4.7% at $63.30 on more than 50,000 after-hours shares.

Keynote Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: KEYN) blew out earnings at $0.29 EPS versus $0.21 estimates; shares are up 9.9% at $23.35 on more than 32,000 after-hours shares.

LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (NYSE: LDK) lowered guidance after having closed up on the day by more than 3%… The company lowered revenue guidance by about $100 million in the first quarter but reaffirmed its 2011 range. Shares are down 4.55% at $10.90 on more than 2 million shares traded in the after-hours session.

MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) is getting drilled after turning in $0.09 EPS versus $0.10 EPS estimates, but lower guidance is the real killer. Shares are down 12% at $9.40 on more than 365,000 after-hours shares.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) is not an earnings play but it feels like one… The company turned in positive results with Sonfi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) showing that the Phase III VELOUR trial evaluating ZALTRA in combination with the FOLFIRI chemotherapy regimen versus a regimen of FOLFIRI plus placebo met its primary endpoints of improving overall survival in the second-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Its shares are up 7.9% at $56.25 on more than 250,000 after-hours shares.

RF Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: RFMD) had a 23% drop in revenue and now the company sees a “flat to down 5%” revenue figure this quarter. RF chips and components aren’t universal winners, apparently. This one is down about 3.5% at $6.10 on nearly 300,000 after-hours shares.

SuccessFactors, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFSF) won but lost in its cloud-based business execution software solutions… The company SuccessFactors beat earnings estimates, guided Q2 revenues above consensus and it raised 2011 guidance. The company also announced that it was spending $290 million to acquire Plateau Systems for its leading learning management system, a Next Generation Portal technology, and CaaS- Content as a Service. SuccessFactors had a $3.15 billion market cap. The stock is down 8% at $37.05 on more than 230,000 after-hours shares.

Stay tuned, tomorrow has many earnings and we have a wild earnings reaction group already. You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, dividend trends, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Active Trader, After-Hours Activity, Trading Alert Tagged: BRCM, BWLD, KEYN, LDK, MIPS, REGN, RFMD, SFSF

Top Active Trader Alert Stocks (EGLE, MIPS, RFMD, PSUN, YHOO)

Douglas A. McIntyre — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:54:31 +0000

Active traders and day traders have many stocks to choose from this Wednesday morning. We are tracking news and moves in shares of Eagle Bulk Shipping (NASDAQ: EGLE), MIPS Technologies (NASDAQ: MIPS), RF Micro Devices (NASDAQ: RFMD), Pacific Sunwear (NASDAQ: PSUN), and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Eagle Bulk Shipping (NASDAQ: EGLE) is up nearly 4% premarket to $4.16, relative to a 52-week range of $3.91-$6.08. The shipping company was upgraded to outperform from market perform by FBR Capital.

MIPS Technologies (NASDAQ: MIPS) is down roughly 10% on light volume to $13.68, relative to a 52-week range of $3.57-$18.19. The semiconductor company reported weak 2Q earnings.

RF Micro Devices (NASDAQ: RFMD) is down 8.5% on heavy volume to $7.01, relative to a 52-week range of $3.65-$8.37. The chip manufacturer reported weak 3Q earnings.

Pacific Sunwear (NASDAQ: PSUN) is down 3% premarket on moderate volume to $4.36, relative to a 52-week range of $2.92-$6.84.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) which met earnings expectations, but nevertheless reported a revenue loss and weak guidance. Shares of YHOO were down nearly 2% premarket on very heavy trading to $15.71, relative to a 52-week range of $12.94-$19.12.

Michael B. Sauter

Filed under: Active Trader, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert Tagged: EGLE, MIPS, PSUN, RFMD, YHOO