Street One Financial submits:
By Paul Weisbruch
Back on January 31 of this year, we published a piece on using market cap oriented S&P index ETFs alongside revenue weighted as well as equal weighted ETFs that are based on the same S&P indexes. The original article appears here.
Microcap Speculator submits:
HQ Sustainable Maritime (Amex:HQS) sells tilapia (bulk, packaged, and prepared tilapia-based meals), nutraceuticals, and feed products for other fish farmers. HQS shareholders had a rough spring. In mid-March, shares broke down and have lost over a third of their value. While the chart doesn’t yet reflect any reversal, or even a basing pattern, I believe the next few months will be a lot better than the last few.
George Fisher submits:
ATP Oil & Gas (ATPG) ($10.16) has provided stock investors with one wild ride, going from $56 in October ’07 to $3 in March ’09, and then to $22 in April ‘10 to $12 yesterday, May 27th , when 26% of the available float traded. ATPG is an small-cap offshore oil and gas development firm with big infrastructure and reserve assets. ATPG focuses on the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico. While future Gulf of Mexico exploration is currently wrought with uncertainty, ATPG’s unique business approach may prove to be very beneficial for long-term investors.
ATPG approaches the oil industry much like Apache (APA) did back in the late 1990s, purchasing cast-off reserve assets from other oil companies, cutting overhead, and further developing the asset. 87% of ATPG’s oil and gas reserves are classified as “proven and undeveloped.” Within these large undeveloped fields lies the opportunity to increase stated reserves as they become developed. When purchased, these fields were assigned a reserve total based on the previous owner’s development history. However, by drilling deeper and using newer techniques, ATPG has the opportunity to increase the amount of oil and gas recovered.
Glen Bradford submits:
DJSP Enterprises (DJSP), one of the largest providers of processing services for the mortgage and real estate industries in the United States, today had its Q1 conference call after announcing results last night. They lowered their full year guidance and since then, the stock has fallen over 25%. I want to use this opportunity to hit on the main points of the call and re-iterate a strong ‘Glen Bradford’ buy. I’m upgrading the stock.I listened into the conference call. Lowered guidance in most situations comes from future problems down the pipeline. That isn’t the case this time. Lowered guidance this time is just a temporary setback. Company prices should be a discount of their future earnings — and in this case, the discrepancy between price and value appears to be fairly large right now. The main points:
Two of their largest customers are merging, and in my opinion, this is going to make Q2 and maybe the beginning of Q3 temporarily weak. That said, I would argue that DJSP is incredibly likely to continue working with this new merged entity and get the backlog of foreclosures that they have built up.
The Inflection Point submits:
After launching an IPO five years ago in the high single digits, Synergetics (SURG) has been stuck in the mud. Revenues have been stagnant, averaging around $50 million a year for the past three years, while its stock has done nothing but move lower since becoming public … Until now, that is.
A few weeks ago the company secured a game-changing licensing, settlement and supply agreement with Alcon (ACL), a $7.5 billion company considered the Microsoft (MSFT) of the ophthalmology sector. The licensing and settlement deal with Alcon puts the company on the map and validates their IP and next-generation technology. In addition, the deal dramatically improves the company’s balance sheet, from one beholden to $11 million in net-debt to a company now with $5-6 million in net cash on its balance sheet. The dramatically improved balance sheet is a big deal for SURG when you consider its market cap is only $70 million.