The move is a bit of a puzzler. The company’s largest revenue share comes from its defense business, which posted net sales in its second fiscal quarter, ending in March, of $971.3 million. In the same period a year ago, net sales in the defense segment totaled $2.27 billion. Income from continuing operations in defense totaled $453 million in the second quarter of 2010, compared with just $142 million in the second quarter of 2011.

The rest of the company didn’t do so well either. In the second quarter of 2010, operating income totaled $494 million, compared with just $132.4 million this year. Sales of vehicles like fire trucks to municipalities also fell, as you would expect given the financing troubles facing so many US cities.

Still, the defense business is key. Oshkosh has a contract to produce an all-terrain vehicle for the US Army, but the new machines are less costly than the older version. Switching from the old to the new has been costly and the newer vehicles haven’t ramped up production yet.

When Icahn’s holdings were revealed, the company issued a statement saying that it “believes Mr. Icahn’s investment is evidence of his belief in the value of the Company,” and that the company is “open to dialogue with its shareholders.”

It’s a pretty safe bet that the dialogue will begin with a blast at the company management’s poor performance and proceed from there into how the company plans to regain its lost sales and profits. Oshkosh’s openness to dialogue will be tested early and often.

Oshkosh shares closed at $28.94 yesterday, but after-hours and pre-market action have pushed them up by 8.33%, to $31.35 before the open today. The stock’s 52-week range is $24.63-$40.11. The median price target for the shares is $38.50, and the stock’s trailing P/E is just 5.33.

Paul Ausick

Administaff Inc. (NYSE: ASF) is rallying after its Q2 earnings profit fell less than the 5% expected drop at a time when revenues rose but faced higher operating costs.  Shares were up about 7% in early-bird indications and now shares are trading up 9.35% at $28.50 on relatively low-volume trading.  This one only trades about 210,000 shares per day on average.

Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA) is trading lower after J.P.Morgan downgraded it on valuation to Neutral from Overweight.  Shares are down 4.8% at $7.57 on almost 400,000 shares.

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABK) stood out as a pre-market gainer in the speculative names on ongoing positive and less-negative financial sector bias.  Shares are up 3% at $0.86 on about 130,000 shares.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is trading higher this morning in fairly active trading after Barron’s reported that the sell-off of late offers an attractive entry point despite its changes away from overdraft and late-fee charges.  Shares are up just over 2.1% at $14.34 on over 1 million shares in the pre-market.

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) is feeling pain after earnings fell by more than 50% on slower sales volumes, higher costs, and weak product demand.  Shares are down 7.3% at $28.80 on about 10,000 shares.

Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) is showing up as a stand-out gainer on high pre-market volume, but the move may be a false one.  There was a $20.08 print this morning on 125,562 shares and then there were two small prints at $21.35 and $21.49…. treat this one as a false move.

DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is trading higher after a newsletter tout after last week’s earnings.  Shares are trading up 3.3% at $4.66 on about 55,000 shares.

Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ: GENZ) is a bull-bear tug of war… Citi downgraded shares to Hold based upon the move versus an expected premium but goes on to say that an expected price range is $74 to $77 for a bid.  Still, no formal deal has come.  Shares were up 0.6% at $70.00 on about 30,000 shares.

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ: GERN) is up again after the same news drove it on Friday about the FDA clearing it to resume a stem cell study.  Shares went to $5.63 on Friday versus a $4.80 close on Thursday… a gain of 17%.  This morning we have shares trading up almost 6% more at $5.96 on over 150,000 shares in the pre-market.

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) reported Q2 earnings of $2.00 EPS on headline numbers versus estimates of $1.67 EPS from Thomson Reuters; revenue rose almost 10% to $8.65 billion versus $8.6 billion expected.

Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE: OSK) reported $2.31 EPS vs $1.92 estimates from Thomson Reuters; revenues were basically up 100% at $2.43 billion vs. $2.29 billion expected.  Shares are up almost 5% around $36.00 but trading volume is still thin on the NYSE-listed company.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) rose after its Q1 profit rose 10% and announced a $150 million add-on to its stock buyback plan. Shares are trading up 11% at $36.81 on over 125,000 shares.  The prior 52-week trading range was $15.86 to $34.86.

ATS Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: ATSI) is the biggest gainer of the trading day as Medtronic is acquiring it for $4.00 per share after a $2.59 close.  Shares are trading up 53% at$3.96 on over 3 million shares, so it is already close to 15-times normal trading volume.

Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is trading up after Q1 earnings rose over 100% on acceptance of its new ad system and on Google woes in China. Shares are trading up 15% at $715.92. The prior all-time high and 52-week high is $651.50.  We have barely seen 100,000 shares in teh pre-market, but it only trades 1.5 million shares.

Dune Energy Inc. (AMEX: DNE) is trading higher after reaching an agreement in principle to sell its interests in the South Florence field for $30 million to a private party.  It also gave its drilling plan for 2010.  Shares are trading up 11% at $0.27 on about 40,000 shares.  A big percentage gainer, but tiny volume and a tinier share price.

Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) is trading lower despite the notion that it swung to a first-quarter profit from recent patent deals and due to a revenue rebound.  Still, this was short of estimates, so even good news is not good enough news for Kodak.  Shares are trading down 6.6% at $7.80 on about 150,000 shares.

E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) is lower after affiliates of Citadel filed to sell up to 170 million shares of common stock.  Shares are trading down 4.9% at $1.75 on over 5 million shares, but this was down almost 7% in some trading last night.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) has caught 4 analyst upgrades after its earnings and guidance beat expectations on order pushouts.  Shares are trading up 8.7% at $19.26 on active trading of about 215,000 shares.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) is a disappointment despite that its earnings rose 90% and despite a raised outlook for the year.  Nothing goes up forever. Shares are trading down 10.8% at $77.50 on about 135,000 shares of stock.  The 52-week range is $34.73 to $99.61, so this is now down over 20% from highs.

Oshkosh Corp. (NYSE: OSK) is still a winner on military-ATV sales as earnings sailed past estimates.  Shares are indicated up 4.6% at $44.40 on thin trading volume.  The 52-week range is $9.25 to $44.57.

Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) is a top gainer this morning and up over 25% above $5.80 after H-P announced it would buy the smartphone maker for $5.70 per share.  Shares are trading up 26% at $5.83 on over 35 million shares with almost 45 minutes still to go before the open.  This traded over 50 million shares alone in the after-hours session last night.

Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV) is lower after it priced 255 million shares in a common stock offering at $2.75 per share, which is effectively a 14% discount to the closing bell price.  It also sold 12 million tangible equity units at $25.00 each. Shares are trading down 7.5% at $2.94 on over 38 million shares.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Sponsor: 26 Cheap Stocks to Sell – Cheap stocks have been on a tear recently, but nine out of ten stocks are circling the drain!

Audit Integrity

The corporate communications staffs of these companies and their outside public relation firms will tell their managements to keep quiet and not react. A reaction, they will argue, just makes it look like Audit Integrity knows what it is doing and that there is some validity to their analysis. Audit Integrity is probably counting on that. It will get a lot of exposure for the study and little ,if any, legitimate criticism.

Audit Integrity says its research services support risk management practices that help investors, insurers and others lower risk and improve performance with objective ratings and reports.

The basis by which it determines which companies are in trouble is to look at three methods for examining firms  tha may be in trouble. Audit Integrity says“Each of these three approaches – accounting-based, market-based, fraud-based –is moderately effective on a stand-alone basis in predicting bankruptcies. Since the models are not highly correlated, each model has the potential to add incremental value to the other models. Audit Integrity combined the three approaches to determine whether the accuracy ratio of an aggregate model would surpass that of any single approach.”

The list does include some companies that are probably in deep financial trouble  including Rite Aid (RAD) and Macy’s (M).

Also listed are American Air (AMR), which just raised $2.9 billion, which the analysis probably does not take into account. Transportation companies Continental Air (CAL) and Hertz (HTZ) are on the list.

Some of the better known public companies that have been targeted by Audit Integrity  include advertising giant Interpublic (IPG) and US tire company Goodyear (GT). Not surprisingly, Las Vegas Sands (LVS), a casino firm that has battled for its life for months is included.

The balance of the list is Federal Mogul (FDML), Textron (TXT), Liberty Media Capital (LCAPA), Mylan (MYL), Apartment Investment and Management (AIV), Redwood Trust (RWT), Oshkosh (OSK) and Amkor (AMKR).

Douglas A. McIntyre

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is defying headlines with a 2% gain.

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) is soaring over 20% on strong earnings and guidance.

Cisco Systems inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is holding up better than we’d have expected with a mere drop of 1% after earnings guidance was lackluster.

FUQI International Inc. (NASDAQ: FUQI) is showing why this was the IBD 100 #1 Chart this last weekend.  New highs are being hit.

IncrediMail Ltd. (NASDAQ: MAIL) is hitting 52-week highs after showing growth in earnings and revenues.

Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE: OSK) is down another 5% at $28.85 on thin volume we expect to grow after it announced a secondary offering last night.

The 24/7 Wall Street Team

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Ctrip.com International (CTRP) Cut to Neutral at Susquehanna.
City National (CYN) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
Commvault Systems (CVLT) Cut to Market Weight at Thomas Weisel.
Inergy L.P. (NRGY) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
KIMCO Realty (KIM) Cut to Perform at oppenheimer.
Oshkosh (OSK) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Simon Property Group (SPG) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
UBS (UBS) Cut to Sell at UBS.

JON C. OGG

Franklin Resources (BEN) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
KLA-Tencor (KLAC), Novellus Systems (NVLS) and Lam Research (LRCX) were all three Raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Nordstrom (JWN) Raised to Neutral and off Conviction Sell List at Goldman Sachs.
Oshkosh (OSK) Raised to Buy at KeyBanc.
Seagate Tech (STX) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill.
Western Digital (WDC) Raised to Buy at BofA/Merrill.
Sprint (S) Raised to Buy at Auriga.

JON C. OGG

The Pentagon could order thousands more of the vehicles. And the win could help the company better compete for business in the Joint Light-Tactical Vehicle program, a potentially larger market segment where it also could take market share from some of its rivals.

Force Protection shares are taking the brunt of the abuse in today’s trading, down more than 35 percent on six times average volume as of 11:30 am. Eastern. Navistar shares are down 3%. BAE Systems (BAESY) also is trading lower after the contract announcement.  One bit of positive news for Force Protection, however, is that it’s possible Oshkosh may partner with one or more of the losing bidders to fill part of its contract requirements.  If that happens, there is history between Oshkosh and Force Protection. The companies are now working together to retrofit Force Protection vehicles with Oshkosh suspension equipment.

Mike Tarsala
July 1, 2009

• Immersion Corp. (Nasdaq: IMMR) is getting whacked down on an investigation into previous revenue transactions in its medical business.
• Speculative gold stocks DROOY, GOLD, AU, AUY were up on active interest with commodities.
• Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: SPPI) Inc. shares were indicated lower after the company raised capital from institutional investors.
• AMAG Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAG) is trading higher after the FDA approved the company’s Feraheme drug as an iron replacement therapy.
• Watch UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) and Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) on Swiss-US tax issues may be closer to abating.
• Premarket Alert: Watch defense contractors on contract news (OSK, FRPT, GD, NAV)…
• Myriad Genetics (NASDAQ: MYGN) is getting destroyed on its deep revenue warning.

You can check each morning at VSInvestor.com for earlier pre-market indications in stocks on the move you might not have seen.

Jon C. Ogg

International Game Technology (IGT) Concerns it will lose patent lawsuit. Drops to $15.22 from 52-week high of $49.41.

Gamestop (GME) Dips on concerns video game market is slowing. Sells off to $34.52 from 52-week high of $63.77.

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (ANPI) Cuts staff and terminates tender offer. Plunges to $.53 from 52-week high of $7.90.

Douglas A. McIntyre