Cheap Stocks

We focus on undervalued small-cap stocks. Usually with a large cash cushion. We have developed a valuation formula that has been highly successful, especially on small tech stocks. Since 2006, we have closed out 49 stock positions with an average gain of 37%. 9 stocks have been taken over.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Cheap Stocks, 6/13/2008 Update

This week the markets were only slightly down. We were down as BDAY continued its slide and LTUS.ob did also. Not much news last week on our stocks.

The DOW was up .8%, NASDAQ was down .8% and the S+P 500 was down .05%.

Last week we went 5 stocks up, 6 down and 2 even.

HPOL was up 26% last week.

For last week, 2008 year-to-date, and since we started this Blog in January 2006, our model portfolio is -2.6%,-22.3 and +13.2% respectively. Since inception we are now 23 stocks up and 10 down and 1 even, with 3 of them being down 5% or less.

So far in 2008 the DOW is down 7.2%, NASDAQ is down 7.5% and the S+P 500 is down 6.4%. The NASDAQ is still down a 14.1% since October 31, 2007.

The Russell 3000 and the Wilshire 5000 are both down just about 6.3% this year.

Since inception we have closed out the following positions:

2006-NTCT +44%
2006-ONXS +11% (Buyout offer)
2006-DTLK +41%
2006-CAW +21% (Buyout offer)
2007-IYXI.ob +44% (Buyout offer)
2007-MOBI +47% (Buyout offer)
2007-INFT +11% (Buyout offer)
2007-RITT +62%
2007-MIVA +55%
2007-DTLK +25% (2 weeks)
2007-PDLI + 3%
2007-QADI +25%
2007-CIMT +50%
2007-BDR +19%
2007-LINN.ob -57% (mortgage business bust didn't help here)
2007-TISA -39% (take some tax loss for 2007 due to disappointing results.
2008-ANGN +26%
2008-OPTO.ob +40% (Buy-out offer)
2008-PDLI +9% (company split, and special dividend)

The model portfolio assumes $10,000 invested in each stock (unless we double-up--then it is $20,000), less $10 commission each way (TD Ameritrade rate).

For the 19 stocks that we closed out in 2006, 2007 and 2008 the average gain was 23%.

Spectranetics (SPNC-Recommended 9/2/2006)
Buy price $9.40 (was $10.65 before double up), Valuation $20-$22
Down $.40 to $10.58.
SPNC presented at the Goldman conference last week. Not a word, or reaction from it. Disappointing.
They have another one coming up on June 25th at 9:30 am EST (Wednesday) at Jeffries.
The company has $43.4 million in cash ($1.37 per share), and is trading at about 2.5 times 2008 revenues (net of cash)and is growing about 30% a year.
Now up 13%. HOLD.

DataWatch Corp. (DWCH-Recommended 2/12/2006)
Buy price $3.02 (was $3.21 added $10,000, averaged down from $3.66), Valuation $8.47 (was $8.47, $10.30, $9.28, $9.20, $8.32, $7.50, $7.63, $9.31)
Closed at $2.65, up $.04.
Our valuation is $8.47, so we are trading at 31% of our valuation.
No news.
Now down 12%. BUY

Parlux Fragrances (PARL-Recommended 11/30/2006)
Buy price $4.14 (was $4.78 before $10,000 adder, $6.12 before another $10,000 added, $6.65 before double up), Valuation $12.40 (Was $11.24, $10.80 $9.20, $8.63, $13.77)
PARL closed at $4.97, up $.07.
Parl announced FY 2008 earnings in early June. Sales were $154 million, gross margin was 50%, they have $1 per share in cash and made $.24 a share for the year-fully taxed. Q4 EPS was like $.13. Our valuation moved up to $12.40 per share.
Now trading at 40% of our valuation---still cheap.
The new management has 2.0 million reasons to make this stock go up. Glenn Nussdorf paid $6 for his shares.
Up 20%. HOLD.

ILOG SA (ILOG-recommended 3/26/2007)
Buy price $12.08 (was $12.92 before another $10,000 added, $13.60 before double-up), Valuation $24.06 (was $24.67, $20.51, $23.22, $20.99, $20.52)
Closed at $9.64 down $.96.
ILOG revised their 2008 guidance down from 20% sales growth and $1-6 million in operating income to double digit sales growth and breakeven operating income. ILOG's market cap, minus cash is $80 million. This is less than 50% of annual sales, for a software company with 70%+ gross margins.
Cash is $3.84 a share (44% of market cap).
ILOG is trading at 40% of our valuation.
A buy-out is a decent possibility here.
Down 20%. HOLD

Celebrate Express (BDAY-recommended 4/17/2007)
Buy Price $6.15 (was $8.38 before $10,000 adder and $8.82 before double-up), Valuation $7.82 (Was 15.51, $17.85 $18.18)
Down $.42 to $2.40.
BDAY pulled their earnings announcement nine weeks ago as they apparently received interest from someone on a buy-out. Were it not for this, we would pack up the truck and sell this one as their struggles are more than we thought (and they thought too).
Trading at 31% of our valuation.
Hold for a while until this "take-over" thing flushes out. We are hoping it happens, but $7 a share looks like the most they could get.
Down 61%. HOLD.

Mediware (MEDW-Recommended 6/4/2007)
Buy Price $6.33, (was $6.52, $6.67 ($10,000 added), $6.98 after double up) NEW Valuation $10.99 (was $10.28, $13.32, $12.89, $13.40)
Up $.07 at $6.00.
Cannell Capital filed a 13D on February 19th, disclosing a 12.9% ownership stake. Cannell is pushing MEDW management to sell the company. Meanwhile, Constellation Software, a Canadian public company that has been on an acquisition binge filed a 13D in April, disclosing a 6.1% ownership in MEDW (499,000 shares). Constellation has $243 million in revenues and is profitable.
In early May, Constellation increased its bank credit line to $105 million from $50 million.
On May 21 Constellation purchased another 586,000 shares of MEDW at prices from $5.43to $5.70 (most at $5.70). So Constellation now owns 1,056,000 shares--13.9%.
Last week Constellation announced another acquisition (4 in last 2 weeks) of what we believe are small software companies. So they are still on the acquisition trail for sure.
Looks like something is going to happen here.
Down 5%. BUY

Candela Corp. (CLZR-Recommended 8/30/2007)
Buy Price $3.74 (was $7.26 before double up), Valuation $9.90 (was $8.69, $11.51)
Down $.13 to $2.17
No news (SOMETHING must be happening here--but nothing of substance for weeks now).
Down 42%. HOLD

MIVA. (MIVA-Recommended 10/21/2007)
Buy Price $2.38 (Was $2.62 before another $10,000 and was $3.00 before double up), Valuation $6.42 (was $6.84, $7.58, $7.59)
Down $.05 to $1.67.
No news.
If they can do what they say in 2008, a valuation of close to $8 is possible.
Trading at 25% of our latest valuation
Down 30%. HOLD

Datalink. (DTLK-Recommended 10/31/2007)
Buy Price $4.28, Valuation $9.97 (Was, $10.66, $9.39)
Up $.20 to $4.28.
No news.
Trading at 43% of our valuation.
Even. HOLD

Harris Interactive. (HPOL-Recommended 5/25/2008)
Buy Price $2.02 (was $2.15 before double up), Valuation $5.96
Up $.51 to $2.51.
Wellington Management filed a 13G/A last week disclosing that they had sold almost all of the 4.5 million shares they had owned. This seemed to take the lid off the stock as it was very CHEAP.
Trading at 42% of our valuation.
Up 24%. HOLD

IPASS. (IPAS-Recommended 6/1/2008)
Buy Price $2.15, Valuation $4.09
Down $.11 to $2.18.
No news.
Up 1%. BUY


OB-abies (Bulletin Board Listed Stocks)

Interestingly, our OB-abies have held up better than the "higher-quality" stocks so far this year. They are down about 8% on average, compared to 16.4% for the stocks above. At least so far. As proven by OPTIO, patience is necessary with these stocks.

ARI Networks (ARIS.ob-Recommended 8/19/2006)
Buy price $1.61 (Was $1.78 before another $10,000 added, was $2.06 before double up), Valuation $5.61 (was $5.71, $5.49, $5.34, $5.03, $5.28, $5.28, $5.21)
Closed at $1.40, down $.15 on a 100 share trade.
ARIS traded 61,700 one day last week--earnings anticipation? We hope so.
Earnings due out Monday June 16th, before the market opens.
ARI does little to get any investor attention. Wake up management--you have a great little company here worth 3X what it is selling for.
Now down 13%. BUY. Still a Huge valuation gap here.

Avatech Solutions Inc. (AVSO.ob-Bought November 28, 2005)
Buy price $.93 (Was $.99 and $1.19 before adding $10,000-twice), NEW Valuation $4.00 (was $3.41, $3.05, $2.53, $3.25, $3.29 $2.69, $3.36, $3.81)
Stock closed at $.90, down $.02.
Earnings out in early May. Sales weak, but earning were great.
Sales dropped from $14.6 million to $12.8 million. But, net income was $1.005 million compared to a $224,000 loss last year. EPS was $.05 versus a loss of $.02 last year. For the 9 months ended March 31, earnings per share were $.12 (untaxed).
Now down 3%. BUY.

CTI Holdings (CTIG.ob-Recommended 2/25/2006)
Buy price $.27 ask, Valuation $1.38 (Was $1.31, $1.38, $1.29, $1.42, $1.28 $1.13, $1.05, $.82)
Ask price unchanged at $.28. Closed at $.23.
CTI announced earnings in early May. Sales were good, but they had another loss. Sales were up to $5.339 million from $5.054 million. They managed to reduce their loss to $180,000 from $587,000 last year. Their VOIP business continues to struggle and lose money--$729,000 in the current quarter. Gross margin % rose to 75% from 72%. Still an "undercover" company and stock.
Our valuation rose slightly to $1.38 from $1.31.
Maybe these guys will wake up and create some shareholder value in 2008.
This is still trading at only 20% of our latest valuation.
UP 4%. BUY

Lotus Pharmaceuticals (LTUS.ob-Recommended 12/3/2007)
Buy price $.84 (Was $.95 before $10,000 adder, $1.08 before double-up) Valuation-$2.28 (Was $2.08)
Closed at $.85, down $.09.
Ah, those Chinese stocks. After announcing earnings in mid-May, it took LTUS another week or so to come out and reaffirm that they expect to make at least $13.1 million in earnings this year. On approximately 50 million shares outstanding this is $.26 per share earnings. So we are trading at a little less than 4 times 2008 EPS. 3 new drugs expected to be introduced this year also.
Up 1%. HOLD

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