wall street nuggets

BALLY TOTAL FITNESS HOLDING CORP [BFT] appeared totally out of shape sinking 17.5% to close at $2.22 after reporting a second-quarter net loss from continuing operations of $0.7 million ($0.02 per share) and a decline in net revenues of 2% from the same period last year to $254.6 million, driven by a 3% decline in the average number of members over the past year. The company also advised that as of August 31^st, borrowings had increased to $48.5 million and letters of credit in the amount of $14.1 million. At current burn rates, and without an agreement to extend the maturity of the Credit Agreement, the company will default on Credit Agreement obligations next April.

HYPERCOM CORP [HYC] mysteriously down 10.7% closing at $7.23, despite the press release regarding the sale to IRN Payment Systems. Possible arbitrage opportunity with PAY and HYC.

STRATAGENE CORP [STGN] soared 28.1% closing at $5.52 with the publication of press release highlighting the FDA’s publication of results from its MicroArray Quality Control (MAQC) project. The project’s goal was to develop standards and quality measures for the microarray community so that these devices could be used reliably in clinical practice and regulatory environments. Microarrays are basically glass chips about 1.5 cm square containing thousands of known gene sequences called probes. When a patient’s genetic material mixed with a fluorescent dye is placed on the chip, it will bind with complementary probe sequences and show up when the dye is scanned with a laser beam. Other public companies involved with microarrays are AFFYMETRIX INC [AFFX], AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES [A], GE HEALTHCARE unit of GENERAL ELECTRIC [GE], and ILLUMINA INC [ILMN].

HAYES LEMMERZ INTERNATIONAL INC [HAYZ] up again 21.1% defying gravity to close at $2.99. The slide show that was attached to the 8-K on Monday was slick, but I still think the wheels are about to come off on the next turn.

W R GRACE & CO [GRA] up 15.4% closing at $12.62 with no specific news of note. There may be some sense that the litigation downside may not be as bad as originally expected on the asbestos front, but we don’t see any real cause for celebration yet.

Sunnyvale based OPSWARE INC [OPSW], which provides server software, shot up 15% closing at $8.27 with a press release pointing out that a recent IDC Report identified OPSWARE as the “fastest growing provider of server provisioning software.” The server provisioning software market is based on the “deployment, configuration, and management of server system and application software.”

PSYCHIATRIC SOLUTIONS INC [PSYS] spiked up 11.5% closing at $35.98 on the news that it would be replacing RSA SECURITY INC (being acquired by EMC) in the S&P MidCap 400.

CONTINENTAL AIRLINES INC [CAL] took off with a strong gain of 10.3% closing at $28.16 as the impact of the drop in crude oil prices finally hit the airlines. Other beneficiaries included: US AIRWAYS GROUP INC [LCC] up 10.2% closing at $44.60 and AMR CORP [AMR] up 9.7% closing at $22.20.

BEST BUY CO INC [BBY] was up 9.1% closing at $52.14 after reporting 22% year over year growth in second quarter earnings - $0.47 per share versus a consensus estimate of $0.44 per share.

The Daily Sector Performance Chart was very strong in almost all sectors.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 12:46 am and is filed under investing, Healthcare, Biotech, Airlines, Software, Automobile, Retail, Chemicals, Business Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.