1. Ciber (lottery ticket-owned): The only positive comment that I can make about Ciber's report this morning is that the firm was profitable in the second quarter, earning 7 cents a share down from 14 cents in the year ago quarter. Revenue fell 18% and 11% of the decline was organic with the rest due to currency fluctuations. At best, this LT, which is in the red slightly, is a hold. The company has reduced its long-term debt by an "impressive" 53.6 million since 2008, down to $112.1. Ciber must have forgot to remind shareholders that the "impressive" reduction was accomplished mostly by a dilutive common stock offering in February. I could go on with the negativity by mentioning that Ciber missed the consensus earnings forecast by 2 cents, missed the revenue forecast, and guided down for fiscal year 2009, but that would be piling on.
2. GE Capital: GE is claiming at GE Capital, its achilles heel for the past year, will not need more capital even under stress conditions. GE expects the losses and impairments at GEC in 2010 to be about the same as in 2009. GE told investors this morning that GEC was running in line with expectations so far this year and was on track to earn between 2 and 2.5 billion this year.
3. Ariad Pharmaceuticals (owned Lottery Ticket): Maybe an old codger with no background in science or medicine needs to make an effort this week in learning more about the Lottery Ticket purchase in Ariad made last summer. This small biotech firm closed last Friday at $1.73, rose to $2.45 yesterday, and is now sprinting up another 34%+ this morning on even more news released earlier today. The positive news today has to do with two other ongoing clinical trials evaluating ridaforolimus, its investigational drug, in combination with trastuzumab (Herceptin) in patients with resistant metastatic breast cancer and with bevacizumab (Avastin) with refractory, metastatic solid tumors. ARIAD Announces Preliminary Data from Two Ongoing Clinical Trials of Its Investigational mTOR Inhibitor, Ridaforolimus, in Combination with Targeted Drugs
Admittedly, I have to just a calculator on my IMAC computer screen to perform simple calculations, so errors creep into my mental calculation, but that looks like almost a double in the first 2 trading days of this week, so far at least. Fifteen minutes into trading, the stock has traded over 7 million shares with an average daily at 576 thousand.
4. Hertz: I still own 50 shares of the TC DKR, bought at $6.45, which contains a senior bond from HTZ maturing in 2012. Hertz Bond Information in One Post I sold the other 50 on a pop to $14 and was then too timid to buy those shares back when DKR fell back down to $6, suffering from a deer in the headlights syndrome. I did ask my Doc about a cure for that, but he gave me the same look as when I asked about a quart of valium to be injected into RB so that LB could get a little peace and quiet. Fed Is Less Gloomy: Measure Time Period of Quantitative Easing in Months not Years/BMY/CBG/SYNTHETIC FLOATERS Needless to say, DKR has done well, now selling for over $20 and I have received two semi annual interest payments on those shares. But the news about Hertz debt issues have taken a turn for the worse, with downgrades in its debt from both Moody's and Fitch recently.
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