Trolling For The Whoppers

[billyjoe]

River,
Got me a whopper! OK maybe it was dumb luck. Did you see the wild swings in the biotechs today? I guess a lot of them reported earnings at the same time. My MATK beat by .03 and raised guidance. Up 20% today. Was way up on it a month or so ago and watched it dwindle almost to nothing, now back to a nice gainer. Have some breathing room now. These bios still drive me crazy.

-------------billyjoe

[riverbabe]

River,
Got me a whopper! OK maybe it was dumb luck. Did you see the wild swings in the biotechs today? I guess a lot of them reported earnings at the same time. My MATK beat by .03 and raised guidance. Up 20% today. Was way up on it a month or so ago and watched it dwindle almost to nothing, now back to a nice gainer. Have some breathing room now. These bios still drive me crazy.

-------------billyjoe

Nice going billy!!! Bios used to drive me crazy too. Think about it though, they are so subject to trials outcomes and then have to go thru so many approval processes, they are all just a crap shoot IMHO. I try very hard to just stay away from them unless there are mitigating circumstances, like I know someone who works for the company, or they look like a great takeover candidate, or they have a can't-miss pipeline. BioMarin is one of those. I bought it at about 19 last year because of takeover rumors, but that didn't happen. I love the pipeline. Well, now it's at around 30 and I'm not in it anymore. Dumb me. Bailed too soon.

The other one was Medimmune. I started buying it many years ago at the recommendation of some folks I knew who thought highly of the company. Well, you've already heard this story of how I ended up with so many shares because of splits and stuff that I set up a college fund for each of my grand children and it finally got bought out and now each of them has about $40K! Anyway, that's over with and I am staying clear of biotech and sleeping pretty good at night. River

[riverbabe]

River,
Do you give free stock tips to boy friends? Don't tell Mrs. billyjoe I asked.

------------billyjoe

Sorry, missed this one!!! The answer is that I have so many boy friends, I don't have enough free tips to go around!!! (And you think I'm kidding, don't you? ). I mean if I gave them all the same tip, it could likely move the MARKET! But if I had a really really good tip to give, I could make an exception for just one somebody who lives pretty close by near a lovely blue spot, if I am guaranteed rolling pin immunity.

[billyjoe]

River,
Here's a future whopper or at least a junior whopper from Peanuts. MLAB. A tiny company. Check it out, only 3.17 million shares outstanding and lightly traded but it sure looks good to me. No analysts cover it so it could be a while. Might be a good takeover candidate.

--------------billyjoe

[riverbabe]

UFPT -- a potential Whopper?

This is what briefing.com had to say about UFPT yesterday. It is my POTW pick for the week and also bought some shares yesterday.


UFP Technologies (UFPT): Momentum Radar; strong EPS growth; potential as IBD play down the road; tiny float (9.60 +0.06)

UFP Technologies (UFPT) has been showing good momentum so we wanted to take a closer look. The co makes interior protective packaging using molded fiber, plastics, and foam. For example, when you buy a computer, inside you will see the keyboard, cords, and mouse all neatly packed in pre-cut foam to prevent damage during transport. UFPT makes the foam. The co also makes interior trim for your car, such as arm rests, center consoles and the fiber sheath you pull back when you want to open you sunroof... The catalyst for the big move in the stock was its impressive Q4 results in early March. While revenue was roughly flat at $96 mln, EPS jumped 58% to $0.71 and Q4 EPS jumped 100% to $0.30. The co cited higher quality bookings and a continued reduction in manufacturing costs. Also, the co is replacing lower margin business with higher margin business. Bottom Line, UFPT came to our attention because it has potential to make the IBD 100. Granted, it is still a long way from the $15 Friday closing price needed to make the list, but we wanted to put it on your radar early as these little stocks often get traders to push them if they get close to the IBD minimal level, especially tiny float stocks like this (3.5 mln shares). It's an interesting story even without the IBD angle as it's not a well known name with strong EPS growth. Also, its valuation is attractive even after the recent move as it trades at a current p/e of 10.8x (one est) and with its tiny market cap of $52 mln, it trades at a price/sales of 0.54x. Mkt cap $53 mln, float 3.5 mln, avg vol 52k.