Think 20/20 Research
Subscribe
- PCs and their makers trying to morph to more - mobile, pads, storage, what next? More M&A - http://bit.ly/aFGWAK $DELL $GOOG $MSFT $AAPL
- Launching The Thematic Investor newsletter - take a look here http://bit.ly/bLO1H7 $KOPN $EQIX $CSCO $CL $K $PG $AAPL $NFLX $RIMM $SVVS $T
- Tune in to Chris Versace on America's Morning News....http://bit.ly/cta0IQ #economy #investing #politics
- $KOPN: Solid 2Q10 Lays the Ground for a Better 2H10 http://bit.ly/bPNFIU
- Getting ready for the July employment report http://bit.ly/aadu2D
- $IIVI Bookings for the quarter increased 120% to a record $125,985,000 compared to $57,245,000 in the fourth quarter of last fiscal year
- Big Lots 2Q revenue comparison rises http://bit.ly/cSdVvJ $BIG
- Smartphone demand drives 54% year-on-year growth in Kopin’s III-V revenue in Q2 http://bit.ly/cGKhkB $KOPN $SWKS
- Commented on: "Universal Display: Showing a Less Than Promising Future" http://soc.li/k0PiaxO $PANL
- Since when does #SmarTrend call EPS upside? showing consensus # is not the same as calling for upside http://bit.ly/9QMdoe $PANL
- Powered by WordPress Twitter Widget Pro
Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Chris Versace, the Thematic Investor and Director of Research at Think 20/20, was recently interviewed by the International Business Times regarding Nokia’s announcement with Intel to open a laboratory focused on developing 3-D capabilities on their MeeGo mobile platform.
Chris Versace, the Thematic Investor and Think 20/20’s Director of Research, will be on America’s Mornings News this Monday (August 9th) morning to talk the economy, the employment situation, double dip prospects, the stock market and investing, and whatever else hosts John McCaslin and Amy Holmes can cook up.
One of the more frustrating aspects of investing, from my perspective, is when the stock market and investors fail to see what I do. I suspect at least a few reading this think to themselves, “What an overconfident ….”
Not true. Well, not entirely.
Rather, what I am addressing is common to many investors - what to do when you become frustrated by an investment, particularly if it’s in a stock that you yourself have selected.
On one hand, you begin to question your judgment and the underlying data, whether you should have ever bought the stock to begin with or if you should just exit the position.
On the other, we have to acknowledge that sometimes it takes time for the stock market and other investors to catch on and recognize what initially attracted us to build that position in the first place.
What a difference a week or so makes. July was a pretty good month for stocks and capped off a strong rally that began in mid-May. I say capped off because so far in August, the market, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, is down 1.5 percent as I type this. The movement in recent days has been fast and furious, ignited by the growing realization that the economic recovery is losing steam. Hardly news to a regular reader of this column, but the number of concurring data points has grown over the past several days.
Consider the following:
Last week’s July employment report of 131,000 jobs lost was worse than expected.
Non-farm business productivity for the second quarter came in at an unexpected -0.9 percent. This not only marked the first decline since the fourth quarter of 2008, when productivity fell by 0.1 percent, but also was in sharp contrast to the metric for the first three months of the year, which was up 3.9 percent. As I have said many a time, perspective is key, so some context and a quick thought…
Chris Versace, the Thematic Investor and Think 20/20’s Director of Research, will be on America’s Mornings News this Monday (August 9th) morning to talk the economy and the employment report, the stock market and investing, and whatever else hosts John McCaslin and Amy Holmes can cook up.
All eyes over the past week have once again turned toward the job picture. A surprise? I think not for several reasons. The least of which was the weekly jobless claims number released on Thursday showed higher than expected initial claims. The real driver of renewed interest and pundit positioning on jobs is the monthly employment report for July, which arrives on Friday. This will be the latest score card for not only the health of the economy but also for how effective the current administration and its stimulative efforts have been.
Per Briefing.com, consensus expectations call for an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent in July, up slightly from 9.5 percent in June. The uptick reflects the shared view that the economy shed 70,000 jobs in July. Economists estimate that the private sector created 100,000 jobs but government employment fell 170,000, as more temporary census jobs disappeared.
The notion that private-sector jobs were created in July was backed up by the ADP employment report for July. That report showed the sixth straight month of job gains in the private sector. Thats the good news. The bad news is that the increase was only 42,000 jobs for July and the six-month average is 37,000. Both of those figures are a far cry from not only monthly job losses but also pale in comparison with new weekly unemployment claims.
Earlier today, Kopin reported 2Q10 earnings of $0.03 per share, inline with Street expectations and $0.01 lower than the $0.04 the company delivered in the year ago quarter on a pro forma basis. In our view, there were few surprises in the quarter as better than expected revenue for the III-V business offset a softer military display business. Revenue for the June quarter was $30.2 million vs. the $29.2 million forecasted by the Street and $28.2 million in the year ago quarter. June quarter III-V revenues were $15.9 million, up 54% year on year and 9.7% sequentially, while CyberDisplay revenues fell both sequentially and year on year to $14.3 million in the June quarter.
Gross margin dipped modestly in 2Q10 to 25% from 25.7% in the year ago quarter, due primarily to the 26% decrease in the higher margin military display business. The impact was more than offset by favorable incremental gross margins in the III-V business, which we believe will continue into the second half of the year. Perhaps the one standout in the quarter was the shift in operating expenses, which in aggregate grew significantly year on year and sequentially. The increase reflects investments associated with Kopin’s III-V business as it further develops new HBT products and its Golden-i business. While we are maintaining a wait and see attitude with Golden-i, we see ongoing HBT development as way for Kopin to improve its III-V market position as mobile phones, smartphones and connected devices become increasingly complex in terms of RF, power consumption and so on.
As we noted in our July 26th initiation report on Kopin, military and consumer electronic display wins in 2Q10 bode well for a stronger CyberDisplay business in 2H10. The better margin profile associated with that business along with continued robust demand for Kopin’s III-V products should result in meaningful margin expansion in 2H10 compared to 1H10….
For a copy of this report, contact customerservice@think2020research.com
Chris Versace, the Thematic Investor, will be on America’s Morning News this Monday, August 2, to talk the economy, budget deficits, , housing, unemployment, investing, other financial topics and whatever else hosts John McCaslin and Amy Holmes want to talk about.