With shares of Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) trading around $46, is AKAM an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let�� analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:
T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement
Akamai Technologies�provides content delivery and cloud infrastructure services for the delivery of content and applications over the Internet. The company�� solutions range from delivery of conventional content on websites to tools that support the delivery and operation of cloud-based applications, to live and on-demand streaming video capabilities all designed to help its customers interact with people accessing the Internet from myriad devices and locations around the world. Cloud services and computing are increasing in popularity in recent years. As consumers and companies are able to outsource their needs to cloud services and increase efficiency and lower cost, look for companies like Akamai Technologies to see rising profits.
Meridian Bioscience, Inc., a life science company, engages in the development, manufacture, sale, and distribution of diagnostic test kits primarily for gastrointestinal, foodborne, viral, respiratory, and parasitic infectious diseases. The company?s diagnostic products primarily consist of C. difficile for the detection of gastrointestinal diseases; Rotavirus and Adenovirus products for pediatric diarrhea detection; H. pylori for stomach ulcers; Enterohemorrhagic E. coli infection and Campylobacter jejuni used in the detection of foodborne diseases; Varicella-Zoster for viral diseases; and Cytomegalovirus for organ transplant infections. Its products also include transport media that store and preserve specimen samples from patient collection to laboratory testing. The company?s diagnostic test kits utilize immunodiagnostic and molecular technologies, which test samples of stool, blood, urine, and other body fluids or tissue for the presence of specific infectious disea ses. In addition, Meridian Bioscience, Inc. manufactures and distributes bulk antigens, antibodies, PCR/qPCR reagents, nucleotides, competent cells, and bioresearch reagents used by researchers and other diagnostic manufacturers. Further, it involved in the contract development and manufacture of proteins and other biologicals under cGMP conditions for use by biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies engaged in research for new drugs and vaccines. The company sells its diagnostic test kits through direct sales force and independent distributors to reference laboratories and hospitals, principally in the United States, Canada, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, the United Kingdom, Africa, the Middle East, and other European countries. The company was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Marc Bastow]
Integrated life sciences company Meridian Biosciences (VIVO) raised its quarterly dividend 5.3% to 20 cents per share, payable on Feb. 14 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 3.
VIVO Dividend Yield: 3.22%
- [By Seth Jayson]
Meridian Bioscience (Nasdaq: VIVO ) reported earnings on July 25. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended June 30 (Q3), Meridian Bioscience met expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.
Hot Rising Companies To Watch In Right Now: Akorn Inc.(AKRX)
Akorn, Inc. engages in the manufacture and marketing of diagnostic and therapeutic ophthalmic pharmaceuticals products, niche hospital drugs, and injectable pharmaceuticals in the United States and internationally. It offers products in various specialty areas, including ophthalmology, antidotes, anti-infectives, pain management, anesthesia, and vaccines. The company?s Ophthalmic segment markets diagnostic products, including mydriatics and cycloplegics, anesthetics, topical stains, gonioscopic solutions, angiography dyes, and others primarily for use in the office setting. This segment also offers therapeutic products, such as antibiotics, steroids, steroid combinations, glaucoma medications, decongestants/antihistamines, and anti-edema medications to wholesalers, chain drug stores, and other national account customers; and non-pharmaceutical products, which include various artificial tear solutions, preservative-free lubricating ointments, and eyelid cleansers. In addit ion, the Ophthalmic segment provides a line of over-the-counter dry eye and other eye health products principally under the TheraTears brand name through a chain drug stores and big box retailers, as well as directly to optometrists, ophthalmologists, and other eye care practitioners and clinics. The company?s Hospital Drugs and Injectables segment provides a line of niche hospital drug and injectable pharmaceutical products comprising antidotes, anti-infectives, controlled substances for pain management and anesthesia, and other pharmaceutical products to hospitals through the wholesale distribution channel. Its Contract Services segment manufactures ophthalmic and injectable pharmaceutical products for third party pharmaceutical customers based on their specifications. The company serves physicians, optometrists, hospitals, wholesalers, group purchasing organizations, pharmacy chains, and other pharmaceutical companies. Akorn, Inc. was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Sean Williams]
What: Shares of Akorn (NASDAQ: AKRX ) �-- a hybrid generic and branded drug developer -- shed as much as 15% of their value after the company reported disappointing first-quarter results.
- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Akorn (NASDAQ: AKRX) were down 9.41 percent to $23.39 after the company reported Q4 results and issued a weak FY14 guidance.
Hot Rising Companies To Watch In Right Now: Strategic Diagnostics Inc.(SDIX)
Strategic Diagnostics Inc., a biotechnology company, develops, commercializes, and markets proprietary products, services, and solutions for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, food safety, and environmental markets. Its life science portfolio includes products and custom services that supply critical reagents used across the life science research and development markets. These products and services include custom antibodies, in-vitro diagnostic-grade antibodies, proprietary critical reagent products, associated bio-processing services, and custom assay design and development services that are sold to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostic companies, as well as to biomedical research centers. The company also provides Kit products, including immunoassays, which represent advanced technology for the detection of food pathogens and soil contaminants. Its detection technologies allow industrial customers to identify the presence of adulterants, such as chem ical toxins, biological pathogens, and other contaminants, which can compromise human or environmental safety, and/or impact efficiencies of production processes. These products are used in various applications, including food and beverage manufacturing, environmental management, and agriculture and agro-science. The company markets and sells its products in the life sciences, and food safety product categories through a direct sales force, Internet, and a network of distributors, as well as through its corporate partners in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Strategic Diagnostics Inc. was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Newark, Delaware.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By CRWE]
SDIX (Nasdaq:SDIX) – a leading provider of biotechnology-based products and services for a broad range of life science, biotechnology, diagnostic, and food safety applications, expects to release its second quarter 2012 results at approximately 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, August 8, 2012.
Hot Rising Companies To Watch In Right Now: Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc.(RSTI)
Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, engineering, manufacturing, and marketing of laser-based products worldwide. The company offers laser macro products to machine tool and automotive markets for cutting and welding of metals. It also provides laser marking products to semiconductor and electronics markets for the marking of integrated circuits, wafers, solar cells, electronic components, and smart cards, as well as to automotive markets for the marking of labels and car components. In addition, the company offers laser micro products for fine welding, fine cutting, micro structuring, and drilling applications in medical devices, semiconductor and electronics, photovoltaic, dental, and jewelry markets; and for perforating and scribing of paper and foils in packaging and paper industries. Further, it provides components to laser industry. The company sells its products in approximately 65 countries to original e quipment manufacturers, systems integrators, and industrial end-users. Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc. was founded in 1975 and is based in Plymouth, Michigan.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Brian Stoffel]
Rofin-Sinar (NASDAQ: RSTI ) , Coherent (NASDAQ: COHR ) , Newport (NASDAQ: NEWP ) , and JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU ) all offer fiber-optic lasers as well.
- [By Brian Stoffel]
For decades, the standard technology in the laser industry has been the carbon-based laser. In reality, these lasers are still commonly used, and sold in bulk by the likes of Rofin-Sinar (NASDAQ: RSTI ) and Coherent (NASDAQ: COHR ) . They are used largely for precision cutting of large pieces of metal.
Hot Rising Companies To Watch In Right Now: Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc (HTGC)
Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. (HTGC), incorporated on December 18, 2003, is an internally managed, non-diversified closed-end investment company. The Company is a specialty finance company focused on providing senior secured loans to venture capital-backed companies in technology-related markets, including technology, biotechnology, life science, and clean-technology industries at all stages of development. The Company's investment objective is to maximize the Company's portfolio total return by generating current income from its debt investments and capital appreciation from its equity-related investments. The Company invests primarily in structured debt with warrants and, to a lesser extent, in senior debt and equity investments. The Company also makes investments in qualifying small businesses through two wholly-owned, small business investment company (SBIC) subsidiaries, Hercules Technology II, L.P. (HT II) and Hercules Technology III, L.P. (HT III).
The Company focuses its investments in companies active in the technology industry sub-sectors characterized by products or services that requires advanced technologies, including, but not limited to, computer software and hardware, networking systems, semiconductors, semiconductor capital equipment, information technology infrastructure or services, Internet consumer and business services, telecommunications, telecommunications equipment, renewable or alternative energy, media and life science. Within the life science sub-sector, the Company generally focuses on medical devices, bio-pharmaceutical, drug discovery, drug delivery, health care services and information systems companies. Within the clean technology sub-sector, the Company focuses on sustainable and renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency and monitoring technologies. The Company refers to all of these companies as technology-related companies and intend, under normal circumstances, to invest at least 80% of the value of its assets in such businesses. Advisors' Opinion:
- [By Bryan Perry]
My first BDC recommendation for you is Hercules Technology Growth Capital (HTGC). Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Hercules is a leading specialty finance company that provides venture debt and equity to venture capital and private equity-backed technology and life-science companies.
- [By Lawrence Meyers]
Business development companies like Hercules Technology Growth Capital (HTGC) invest money into middle-market companies that are experiencing fast growth.� Often, these investments take the form of mezzanine debt paying interest in the teens, and some warrants.� Hercules likes to focus more on senior secured revolvers and term loans to refinance existing debt, and will even take second-liens.� It has more attractive upside with its investments than other BDCs because it focuses on tech, energy tech, healthcare, life sciences and business services — all of which can fetch higher multiples upon exit.� It pays out a sturdy 7.3% dividend.
- [By James Brumley]
So why did MRLN stock get cut nearly in half earlier in the year even though other small-cap stocks didn’t? Good question — the answer still isn’t clear. That may be why shares have finally perked up the last couple of weeks. The recovery may also have something to do with the fact that the forward-looking P/E of 12 for a steady-Eddie grower like Marlin Business is a bargain.
Hercules Technology Growth Capital (HTGC) Ever wanted to invest in small caps that aren’t publicly-traded? Hercules Technology Growth Capital (HTGC) is one way of doing so.
Hot Rising Companies To Watch In Right Now: Imperva Inc (IMPV)
Imperva, Inc. (Imperva), incorporated on April 2002, is engaged in providing data security solutions focused on providing visibility and control over business data across systems within the data center. The Company�� securesphere data security suite is a solution designed to prioritize and mitigate risks to high-value business data, protect against hackers and malicious insiders and address and streamline regulatory compliance. SecureSphere is an integrated, modular suite, which provides database, file and Web application security and secures all business data across a range of systems in data centers, including traditional on-premise data centers as well as private, public and hybrid cloud computing environments. The Company also offers on-demand, cloud-based security services. The Company has two segments: Imperva, which is comprised of its financial position and results of operations and those of the Company�� wholly owned subsidiaries, and Incapsula, which is comprised of the financial position and results of operations of the Company�� majority owned subsidiary. In February 2014, Imperva Inc acquired real-time mainframe security auditing agents from Tomium Software.
The Company�� products include SecureSphere data security suite for enterprise data centers and its cloud-based security services that it provides through Incapsula for mid-market enterprises and small and medium business (SMBs). The Company�� solution includes database security, file security and Web application security.
Database Security
Database security provides full visibility and control over structured business data repositories, including database data usage, vulnerabilities and access rights and enables security, audit, risk and information technology (IT) professionals to improve data security and address compliance requirements. The database products cover the enterprise database platforms, including Oracle, MS-SQL, IBM DB2, Sybase, Informix, MySQL, Progress, Teradata and ! Netezza. The database security products include discovery and assessment server, database activity monitoring, database firewall, user rights management for databases and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) insights. The discovery and assessment server automates the process of discovering databases and other business data on the network and performs a security assessment to identify risks to high-value business data. Database activity monitoring includes all discovery and assessment server functionality. Database firewall includes database activity monitoring functionality. User rights management for databases enables the management of user rights across heterogeneous enterprise databases by aggregating user rights to illustrate what rights users have to business data. ADC Insights provides user tracking for identifying the real end user behind database transactions.
The Company competes with International Business Machines Corporation, McAfee, Inc. and Oracle Corporation.
File Security
File security provides full visibility and control over unstructured business data repositories, including file ownership, usage and access rights and enables security, audit, risk and information technology (IT) professionals to improve file data security and address compliance requirements. The file security products are designed to secure files, including spreadsheets, presentation slides, word processing documents and portable document format (PDFs) containing high-value business data that its customers store in unstructured repositories, such as file servers, network attached storage and storage area network devices. The File security products include user rights management for files, file activity monitoring and file firewall. User rights management for files enables the management of user access rights across multiple different file storage systems by aggregating user rights based on organizational context and actual file usage to illustrate what rights users have to sensitive ! files. Fi! le activity monitoring includes all user rights management for files functionality. File firewall includes all file activity monitoring functionality, and provides real-time blocking of suspicious activity that violates corporate policies.
The Company competes with EMC Corporation and Symantec Corporation.
Web Application Security
Web application security protects Web applications from large scale cyber attacks, adapts to evolving threats to prevent data breaches and addresses compliance requirements. Its product includes Web application firewall (WAF), which fortifies Web defenses with research-driven intelligence on current threats.
The Company competes with Citrix Systems, Inc. and F5 Networks, Inc.
Cloud-Based Services
The Company�� cloud-based service offerings are its Incapsula service, the Imperva Cloud WAF Service and its ThreatRadar subscription service. The Incapsula service is designed to be easy to deploy and to be accessible to small and medium size businesses that need data security and compliance solutions, but do not have the size or resources to deploy its SecureSphere WAF appliances into their own Website infrastructure. Incapsula�� security and optimization offerings include the services, including Web application firewall services, content delivery optimization and distributed denial of service-attack prevention. Web application firewall services provide enterprise-grade blocking of attacks against Web applications to help ensure Website safety and availability; enhanced security through real-time and centralized threat detection across all protected Websites; allows customers to address compliance requirements. Content delivery optimization optimizes Website performance by reducing page load times, server load and bandwidth consumption. Distributed denial of service-attack prevention blocks malicious attack traffic and allows filtered, legitimate traffic to flow to the customer Website allowing its b! usiness t! o run without interruption.
Imperva Cloud WAF powered by Incapsula, bundles the incapsula service with managed support services from our security operations center (SOC). Managed services include provisioning, security alert notifications and tuning, incident response, real time service dashboard and statistics, customer support and weekly reports on alerts and attack trends. ThreatRadar is an add-on, premium subscription service for the Company�� SecureSphere WAF appliance that recognizes attack sources and dynamically adjusts Web security policies within its SecureSphere WAF appliance to provide protection against them.
The customers include four of the telecommunications companies, three of the commercial banks in the United States, three of the financial data service firms, three of the computer hardware companies, two of the food and drug store companies, over 150 government agencies worldwide and more than 100 Fortune 1000 companies. The Company primarily sells its products and services through its network of over 350 channel partners worldwide, including both distributors and resellers. The Company derives its revenue from sales and licenses of its products and sales of its services. Services revenue consists of maintenance and support, professional services and training and subscriptions. A majority of the Company�� revenue is derived from customers in the Americas region. As of December 31, 2010, 66% of its total revenue was generated from the Americas, 24% from Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and 10% from Asia Pacific, and for the six months ended June 30, 2011, 63% of its total revenue was generated from the Americas, 24% from EMEA and 13% from Asia Pacific.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Garrett Cook]
Technology shares jumped by 1.69 percent in today’s trading. Top gainers in the sector included Imperva (NYSE: IMPV), up 21.6 percent, and Spansion (NYSE: CODE), up 20 percent.
