Hello Friends! I took a break for a few days. I hope you all managed to survive the correction. Hopefully, the rebound will last longer than a day...but I am certain that next week will be interesting! My trading account is intact without any additional sales due to losses. The closest to a sale is currently Mylan (MYL), which is down about 6% from my purchase price...so will be watching that one especially closely.
Looking over Fridays movers, I came across Somanetics Corp (SMTS) which closed at $11.50, up $1.05 or 10.05% on the day. According to the Yahoo profile, Somanetics "...develops, manufactures and markets the INVOS Cerebral Oximeter, the only non-invasive patient monitoring system commercially available in the United States that continuously measures changes in the blood oxygen level in the brain." On March 11th, 2004, results from a 2,279 patient study were reported at the Cardiothoracic Techniques and Technologies Annual meeting that cardiac surgery patients showed a "...significant reduction in permanent stroke" when monitored with the Company's INVOS Cerebral Oximeter. With the large numbers of cardiac surgical patients in the U.S., and the ever-growing concern about brain status after surgery, this may indeed be a very significant development. The market responded accordingly boosting the price of the stock.
On January 13, 2004, Somanetics reported fourth quarter 2003 earnings results. For the quarter ended November 30, 2003, revenues increased 44% to a record $2.9 million. Net income was a record $321,955 or $.04/basic share, compared to a net loss of $(85,849) or $(0.01)/share the prior year in 2002.
The "5-Yr Restated" financials on Morningstar.com shows that revenues, while small, have grown steadily from $2 million in 1998, $4 million in 1999, $5.1 million in 2000, $5.7 million in 2001, $6.7 million in 2002 and $8.5 million in the trailing twelve months.
Earnings per share, which just turned positive (see above note), have improved steadily from a loss of $(1.01) to $.01/share in 2003, based on the just-reported fourth quarter.
Free cash flow, while negative, has been improving from $(4) million in 2000, $(2) million in 2001, $(1) million in 2002 and per Morningstar, $(1) million in the trailing twelve months.
The balance sheet looks quite nice with $1.9 million in cash, more than enough to cover the current liabilities of $700,000 and NO long-term liabilities at all. In addition SMTS has $2.7 million in other current assets.
Looking at Yahoo "Key Statistics" we can see that this is a TINY company with a market cap of $107.1 million. The trailing p/e (with $.01/share reported), is astronomical at 2,300. However, the PEG, is much better at 2.73, with a price/sales still quite steep at 10.40. There are only 9.31 million shares outstanding with 8.80 million of them that float. Only 11,000 shares are out short, quite insignificant as of 2/9/04, representing 0.12% of the float or 0.079 trading days. No cash dividend is paid, and the last split was actually a reverse split of 1:10 paid out 4/11/97.
Overall, I like this stock a lot. It is quite speculative and I certainly am NOT in a position to add any positions (even though I am at 22 positions of my goal of 25), as I am WAITING, trying to sit on my hands, until I have a sail of a portion of my holdings at a GAIN. The valuation is tough to measure since they are JUST turning profitable this year. However, the track record of growing revenues, improving earnings, and improving free cash flow is terrific. I like the current news a lot regarding the degrease in morbidity just presented associated with cardiac surgery and the use of this company's products.
Taking a quick technical look at the SMTS point and figure chart, we can see this stock was going nowhere until about May, 2003, when it broke through a resistance level at about $2.75/share and has not looked back since!
Please check with your own financial advisor to make sure this stock is appropriate for you as it is a small company that for me at least means that while there may be great potential for gain, may also represent risks on the downside. Always do your own due diligence. As mentioned above, I do not own any shares of this stock.
Thanks again for stopping by and visiting. If you have any questions, comments, or words of encouragement, please feel free to email me at Bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com
Regards!
Bob