Orbotech Cut To Hold From Buy By Brigantine Advisors >ORBKThe Wall Street Journal 07/27/10 Brigantine Advisors: Semi Industry Note - Will Intel's (INTC) Record Results Drive Only a Short-Term Pop?StreetInsider.com 07/14/10 Brigantine Advisors: Semi Industry Note - Will Intel's record results drive only a short-term pop, before the gravity of macro concerns pull semi stocks down? Brigantine Advisors Reiterates a 'Buy' on Teradata (TDC); Oracle switches Exadata focus to IBM from TDCStreetInsider.com 06/25/10 Brigantine Advisors reiterates a 'Buy' rating on Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC), price target $38. Netflix: Piper, Brigantine Raise Price Targets, Pound The TableThe Wall Street Journal 06/14/10 - Eric Savitz Netflix (NFLX) shares are getting a lift this morning from a pair of bullish research notes. Brigantine Advisors Says CEVA (CEVA) Buyback is Responsible Use of CashStreetInsider.com 05/27/10 Brigantine Advisors maintains a 'Hold' rating on CEVA, Inc. (Nasdaq: CEVA) following an announcement this morning that its board of directors has expanded its stock buyback program by two million shares. At today’s price, the entire buyback would cost almost $24M, or about 22% of the company’s current cash balance. Brigantine Advisors Managing Director Reveals Top Data Sector Stock Winners To Investors; Which Companies Are High Performers?Yahoo! Finance 04/15/10 The Wall Street Transcript has recently published its Data Hosting & Data Storage Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This Special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online. Semi Equipment: Brigantine Sets Buy On BRKS; Hold On AMATThe Wall Street Journal 04/07/10 - Eric Savitz Brigantine Advisors analyst Darice Liu has launched coverage on Brooks Automation (BRKS) and Applied Materials (AMAT). Liu expects 2010 semiconductor industry capital spending to be up more than 75% in 2010. Ramesh Misra on Business News Network TVVideo on Business News Network 03/18/10 ADBE Up, SHPGY DownSmartMoney 03/17/10 - Steve Frankel Adobe (ADBE: 35.75, +0.26, +0.73%) shares were rising early Wednesday as analysts showed enthusiasm for earnings next week.Brigantine Advisors analyst Steven Frankel upped his rating for the stock to buy from hold on Wednesday ahead of Adobe’s first-quarter report and the launch of Creative Suite 5 (CS5). “In the near-term we expect the company to beat our conservative estimates and come in line to slightly above consensus numbers and guide conservatively headed into the CS5 launch in mid-Q2,” wrote Frankel. Brigantine Advisors Defends IMAX (IMAX) After Yesterday's Sell-Off On AMC Competition FearsStreet Insider 03/04/10 Analysts at Brigantine Advisors are defending Imax (Nasdaq : IMAX) after yesterday's nearly 10% slide due to a competitive threat from joint venture partner AMC, which announced a 3D theater with a 20% larger screen and enhanced sound. The firm said, "we believe the market has over-reacted to the AMC news and would be buyers of the stock at current levels." The firm also notes "the runaway success of Avatar, likely followed by strong numbers from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which opens this weekend, has shown exhibitors the power of the Imax joint venture model and reinforced the Imax brand with consumers. We believe this will be apparent in the Q4 results, which will be reported on March 11th where the company is likely to surpass both our numbers and the consensus. In Q4 we are looking for $39.6M/$0.07 and the consensus is $45.3M/$0.08." The firm reiterated their Buy rating and $14 price target. Brigantine Advisors Names PMC-Sierra (PMCS) As Top Small/Mid Cap IdeaStreet Insider 02/24/10 - Allan Mishan Brigantine Advisors maintains a 'Buy' rating on PMC-Sierra (Nasdaq: PMCS), names stock as Top Small/Mid Cap Idea. Price target $13. Brigantine analyst says, "Positive momentum continues. We hosted a series of investor meetings with PMC-Sierra CFO Mike Zellner and VP of Marketing Communications and IR David Climie. Management continues to see improving demand and better visibility across its business. Strength is broad-based, with recovering order rates in North America and Europe joined more recently by strength in China, which had been weak in 2H09...Multiple growth vectors in storage. PMC should benefit from a number of identifiable drivers in its storage business in 2010. A full year of revenue from the HP RAID-on-chip win should provide an incremental $35M in revenue vs. 2009. 6G SAS expander and controller wins should translate to revenue in 2010 as platforms go to production (worth $25-$30M according to management). Fibre Channel demand has recovered and the ramp of 8Gbps could boost ASPs...New WAN products address OTN and wireless." "We find PMCS attractively priced at just 12X 2010E EPS of $0.68, and rate the stock as our top small/mid cap idea. We further note that current consensus 2010 estimates imply virtually no quarterly top line growth Q1-Q4 (though that would still generate >20% year-over-year growth for 2010 vs. 2009), and therefore look conservative assuming end demand continues to slowly improve." NetApp Whacked By Pair Of Downgrades After Strong FY Q3Barron’s 02/18/10 Brigantine Advisors analyst Mark Kelleher, on the other hand, upped his rating to Buy from Hold, setting a target of $40. He says NetApp “offers a compelling solution within the storage virtualization industry,” and adds that the upgrade reflects his view that the company is seeing “a more robust channel pipeline and a strong deferred revenue base.” The stock, he contends, looks “too good to stay on the sidelines.” Brigantine Advisors analyst Ramesh Misra upped his rating on First Solar (FSLR)Barron’s 02/18/10 Brigantine Advisors analyst Ramesh Misra upped his rating on First Solar (FSLR)to Buy from Hold ahead of the company’s Q4 earnings report, due today after the close. The Street is looking for revenue of $580 million and $1.50 a share; he’s expecting $591 million and $1.52. “News out of the solar sector has generally been negative over the last few months: a mostly inconclusive climate summit in Copenhagen, delays in the passage of the Climate Bill in the U.S., concerted resistance towards the adoption of carbon limits, higher than expected reduction in German feed-in-tariffs and lower than expected economic growth in Europe and Germany,” he writes. (Isn’t Germany part of Europe, BTW?) “The primary consequence of this is that expectations for growth in the solar sector have moderated to more realistic levels, coupled with a pull back in FSLR’s stock.” Misra contends that “the longer term prospects for solar energy remain bright” - pun intended? - “especially in the U.S., and with First Solar’s increased focus on utility projects in the U.S., we think the company is well positioned to exploit opportunities in regions with higher solar energy generating potential.” Ergo, the upgrade. Coinstar Slides On Worries Over Redbox WorkaroundBarron’s 02/12/10 Brigantine Advisors analyst Steven Frankel today cut his rating on the stock to Hold from Buy, “awaiting signs that margins have bottomed and that the company can put its disputes with the studios behind it.” Frankel notes that the cost of the workaround is clearly affecting margins: gross margin fell to 15.9% in the latest quarter from 17.4% in Q3 and 18.7% a year ago. He figures the workaround is adding $1-$3 a disc in additional costs. “The company needs to put these issues behind it and agree to some sort of revenue sharing/rental window,” he writes. “Without such an agreement, margins are likely to remain under pressure, as the workarounds only get more difficult as the size of the installed base of kiosks grows.” Brigantine Advisors Reiterates a 'Buy' on Compellent Technologies (CML); Demand Returning But Competition TougherStreetInsider 02/10/10 Brigantine Advisors reiterates a 'Buy' on Compellent Technologies (NYSE: CML), raises price target to $22.25 from $18.75. Brigantine analyst says, "The company added 136 customers in Q3, we expect CML to add approx. 150 new customers in Q4 with revenue from the existing customer base to contributing approximately 50% of revenue, above historical norms (40-45 is the norm). The company continues to invest in sales growth, with the number of employees as of the September quarter climbing to 360 from 340 in the previous quarter...As written in prior research, our check are indicating that the Q1 deal pipeline has started off with a blast which we believe will lead to CML providing strong Q1 revenue guidance. We are however, Seeing HP (NYSE: HPQ) and Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) moving higher up into the storage market. Both are offering free maintenance and installation which are causing problems with channel partners. While this enhances competition, it also drives angered channel partners closer to CML. Additionally, the new EMC (NYSE: EMC) CLARiiON with storage tiering will make competition even more aggressive in the coming quarters which we will monitor closely...Based on fundamentals, we believe the stock may have limited upside from current levels. However, we do believe the company is one of only a handful of companies with storage virtualization built into its architecture and is still growing 30+% year over year, and therefore is a prime acquisition candidate." Brigantine Advisors, Joanna Makris Business News Network, speaking on CSCO (starts 44 seconds in)Video on Business News Network 02/03/10 3-D is helping brighten the picture for ImaxLA Times 02/02/10 Wall Street likes the story: Imax's stock price has jumped more than 150% in the last year. "The company is growing, profitable and positioned to leverage the rising popularity of 3-D and digital cinema in 2010 and beyond," wrote Brigantine Advisors analyst Steven Frankel in a recent report. Picking the pearl of stocksFinancial Post 01/30/10 Clearwire, meanwhile, may deploy the Ottawa-based company's microwave backhaul technology more aggressively as its expands its footprint beyond the initial 120 million population it now serves. The technology gets wireless data from end users to networks more efficiently. This should serve to dispel the bear-case argument on revenue deceleration, according Joanna Makris an analyst at Brigantine Advisors. She also noted that DragonWave has a six-month window of visibility into Clearwire's deployment schedule. Regardless, this stock is clearly more suitable for investors with a tolerance for some volatility. Brigantine Advisors Upgrades EMC Corp (EMC) to BuyStreetInsider 01/22/10 Brigantine analyst says, "EMC is set to report Q4 (Dec) results on January 26th, 2010 prior to the market open. We are expecting revenue of $3.95B and EPS of $0.32. This compares to consensus of $4.025B /$0.30. Guidance for Q4 stands at $4B/$0.30 which include Data Domain. We have raised our estimates to reflect continued flow of data points indicating strong December demand that has continued into the March quarter...Given the trends we are seeing in the storage market, and EMC’s current valuation, we are upgrading shares of EMC to Buy and instituting a price target of $23. Our target is based on a PEG ratio of 1.1x on our C2011 EPS estimate of $1.06 (ex $500M of net income from VMware (NYSE: VMW) (Hold-rated), which yields a market cap of $25.1B, to this we add VMW’s 16.5B market cap ($43 price target on VMW) and divide by 2.175B shares which yields a $19.25 target. We add $3.60 of estimated net cash and arrive at a 12 month price target of $23." Brigantine Advisors Reiterates a 'Buy' on Aruba Networks (ARUN); Raises PT & Estimates After Positive Channel Checks.StreetInsider 01/19/10 Brigantine Advisors reiterates a 'Buy' rating on Aruba Networks (Nasdaq: ARUN), raises price target from $12 to $15. Brigantine analyst says, "We have conducted another round of checks into FQ2/10 (Jan). Net-net, Aruba’s win rate and end market demand appear to have accelerated in recent weeks. We believe Aruba will likely exceed prior guidance of 1 to 3% QoQ growth ($58-$60M). Our discussions suggest a likely sequential increase in U.S. sales, a reversal of last quarter’s 10% QoQ decline. 802.11n could represent ~50% of AP shipments (up from 42% in FQ1). Several contacts noted increased activity in several non-core verticals: transportation, manufacturing, and oil & gas." "We are increasing our FQ2 and F2010 estimates. For FQ2, we model $0.06 on $60.6M (+5% QoQ)—ahead of consensus and guidance of $0.05 on $58-$60M. For F2010, we model $0.22 on$245.2M (+22% YoY). For F2011, our estimates remain unchanged at $0.32 on $276.1M (+13% YoY). We model operating margin of 9.6% and 13.5% in F2010 and F2011, respectively." Aruba: Brigantine Ups Target, Estimates; Stock GainsBarron's 01/19/10 Aruba Networks (ARUN) shares are trading higher today after Brigantine Advisors analyst Joanna Makris repeated her Buy rating on the provider of enterprise wireless networking hardware, lifting her price target to $15, from $12. Makris writes in a research note that channel checks find Aruba’s contract win rate and end-market demand both appear to have accelerated in recent weeks. She thinks the company will exceed prior guidance for the fiscal second quarter ending January of 1%-3% sequential growth. For Q2, Makris sees EPS of 6 cents, ahead of guidance at 5 cents. For FY 2010, she sees 22 cents; for FY 2011, 32 cents. “We continue to view Aruba at the inflection point of a powerful, multi-year growth cycle as the company capitalizes on the wired Ethernet replacement opportunity, an $8 billion-plus market that is under-appreciated by investors,” she writes. “An improving competitive position and end markets increase the likelihood for upside to estimates.” IBM Does Intel, and Other Tech, One BetterCNBC 01/19/10 Lou Miscioscia at Brigantine Advisors, says the company taking its 2010 EPS target to "at least $11," is "conservative, because we believe that technology spending is starting to improve broadly." Further Brigantine says the services signings number of $18.8 billion beat its own estimates by $1 billion. Brigantine Advisors, Lou Miscioscia Business News Network, speaking on IBM and HP January 14th 2010Video on Business News Network 01/14/10 Brigantine Advisors, Joanna Makris Business News Network, speaking on DRWI January 7th 2010Video on Business News Network 01/07/10 LinkedIn Wants Users to Connect MoreWall Street Journal 12/29/09 - Collin Gillis LinkedIn is "not really a community as much as a collection" of names, said Brigantine Advisors analyst Colin Gillis. "They are definitely in danger of losing the business-networking market." While Facebook doesn't specifically target the professional market, hundreds of companies, such as Ernst & Young and EMC Corp., use the site to highlight their firms and recruit new candidates, said a Facebook spokeswoman. Special groups for lawyers, accountants, engineers, sales people and other professionals have cropped up all over Facebook as well. Brigantine Advisors, Joanna Makris News Network, speaking on CSCO November 4th 2009Video on Business News Network 11/04/09 Magic Tricks on the Corporate BooksBusiness Week 10/21/09 - Collin Gillis As of the second quarter, Amazon was taking 65 days to pay bills, vs. 58 at the start of the year. Says Colin W. Gillis of research firm Brigantine Advisors: "They make money on the backs of suppliers." Such moves, Middleswart estimates, accounted for 70% of Amazon's cash flow in the most recent 12 months. "Think of this as a rubber band being stretched," he says. "[The company] cannot maintain the situation." Eventually the company has to pay up, which could crimp cash flow. One analyst said Amazon doesn't have any accounting problems, and "there's some aggressive shorts out there who want to knock it down." Amazon declined to comment. Cisco to Buy Starent for $2.9 Billion for Mobile GearBloomberg 10/13/09 Starent’s equipment helps wireless carriers understand the kind of traffic that’s crossing their networks, enabling speedy routing of that information to mobile devices. The acquisition helps Cisco benefit from the increasing demand for phones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry, which boost data traffic, said Joanna Makris, an analyst at Brigantine Advisors. Brigantine Advisors, Colin Gillis Bloomberg TV, speaking on AMZN and EBAYVideo on Bloomberg TV 10/09/09 Brigantine Advisors, Colin Gillis Bloomberg TV, speaking on EBAY, YHOO, GOOG September 18th 2009Video on Bloomberg TV 09/18/09 Analysts warn of expensive legal fight with Broadcom suitMarketWatch 09/15/09 Battle could also disrupt Emulex's relationship with customers, they say SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Broadcom Corp.'s patent infringement suit against Emulex Corp. may turn into a protracted legal battle that could prove costly for both firms, analysts said Tuesday. Shares of Emulex (ELX 11.34, -.00, -0.03%) fell 1.2% Tuesday, a day after Broadcom accused the networking-gear maker of infringing on 10 of its patents in what appears to be a new chapter in the two tech companies' bitter dispute. Acer seen as winner in PC recoveryChina Daily 09/10/2009 "Acer will more likely recover quicker because they're doing well in the pockets that they're in ... they're one of the lower cost providers out there that are still respected," said Louis Miscioscia, research director at tech-focused US firm Brigantine Advisors. Dell's Challenges Extend Beyond EconomyThe Wall Street Journal 08/27/09 Lou Miscioscia, an analyst with Brigantine Advisors, said the tech-spending falloff appears to have bottomed out earlier this year. But that doesn't mean Dell is poised for an immediate recovery. He notes that companies remain reluctant to spend, and if consumers do get spending, the small size of Dell's consumer division could prove a liability. Then there is the company's reliance on sales in the U.S., where a recovery may take longer than overseas. Those are "difficult things for Dell," Mr. Miscioscia says. Coinstar: Brigantine Upgrades On Paramount DealBarron's 08/26/09 Brigantine Advisors analyst Steven Frankel this morning lifted his rating on Coinstar (CSTR) to Buy from Hold, just a week after he launched coverage of the company. In particular, he is upbeat on yesterday’s news that the company’s Redbox video rental kiosk business has reached a deal for a trial partnership with Viacom’s (VIA) Paramount unit. The deal is in contrast to pending litigation between Conistar and three other studios: Fox, Universal and Warner. The issue: the $1-a-day rental model Redbox has adopted is eating into DVD retail sales, and rapidly taking market share from traditional DVD rental stores and subscription plans. Frankel contends that Redbvox “has emerged as the category killer in the video rental market.” He says the buck-a-day model “has proven successful for both consumers and rertailers.” The company now has about 18,000 locations, is reporting comp-store (well, comp kiosk) sales north of 30% and should have revenue north of $800 million this year, he says. Frankel sees Coinstar posting EPS this year of 85 cents, up from 50 cents in 2008. For 2010, he sees profits jumping to $1.40 a share. Revenue, he forecasts, should increase from $911.9 million last year, to $1.26 billion this year and $1.61 billion in 2010. Does NetApp still need to make an acquisition?Marketwatch 08/20/09 "NetApp will need to look for other methods of finding growth," wrote Mark Kelleher, an analyst with Brigantine Advisors, last week. An offer Data Domain can’t refuseReuters 06/02/09 It’s unlikely that NetApp outbids EMC for Data Domain, as it will be difficult to match the all-cash deal,” said Mark Kelleher, an analyst at Brigantine Advisors. |
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