Money manager Jim Oberweis, Jr. highlights two stocks that operate in the niche market for "software-as-a-service"��aaS. In the Oberweis Report, the small cap expert looks at two players in this field.
Callidus Software (CALD) is a leading software-as-a-service provider of sales force effectiveness solutions, with more than 1,700 customers.
Its products help align sales reps' goals with the firm's goals. Since the beginning of 2011, Callidus has dramatically expanded its product offering through the completion of eight acquisitions.
This moves added functionality to its core offering in the areas of sales coaching, sales hire testing, sales enablement, learning management, content authoring, and recruitment services.
In the company's latest reported third quarter, sales increased approximately 28% to $30.7 million, from $23.9 million in the third quarter of last year. Callidus reported earnings per share of $0.07 in the latest reported third quarter, versus a loss in the same quarter of last year.
5 Best High Dividend Stocks To Own For 2015: American Apparel Inc (APP)
American Apparel, Inc. incorporated on July 22, 2005, is a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of branded fashions basic apparel and accessories for women, men, children and babies. As of January 31, 2013, the Company had operated 251 retail stores in 20 countries. The Company also operates an e-commerce site that serves over 60 countries worldwide at www.americanapparel.com . In addition, American Apparel operates a business that supplies T-shirts and other casual wear to distributors and the imprintable industry. The Company operates in four business segment: U.S. Wholesale, U.S. Retail, Canada, and International.
The U.S. Wholesale segment consists of the Company's wholesale operations of sales of undecorated apparel products to distributors and third party screen printers in the United States, as well as its online consumer sales to United States customers. The U.S. Retail segment consists of the Company's retail store operations in the United States. The Canada segment consists of the Company's retail, wholesale and online consumer operations in Canada. As of December 31, 2012 , the retail operations in the Canada segment consisted of 35 retail stores. The International segment consists of the Company's retail, wholesale and online consumer operations outside of the United States, and Canada. As of December 31, 2012 , the retail operations in the International segment were consisted of 76 retail stores.
As of December 31, 2012 , the Company's retail operations consisted of 251 retail stores in 20 countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Australia, Japan, South Korea and China. The Company's wholesale operations sell to over a dozen authorized distributors and approximately 10,000 screen printers and advertising specialty companies. The Company operates 12 online stores in the United States, Canada, the U! nited Kingdom, Continental Europe, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The Company competes with The Gap, Urban Outfitters, H&M, Uniqlo, Forever 21, Gildan Activewear, HanesBrands, Russell Athletic and Fruit of the Loom.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Michael Hamlett Jr]
American Apparel (APP) is an American clothing manufacturer, distributor and retailer. APP suspended its CEO, Dov Charney, but has kept him as a consultant pending further investigation into his conduct. To say that APP is struggling would be a huge understatement. If New York investment firm Standard General didn't acquire Charney's 44% stake in the company for $25 million and pay for a $10 million loan at 20% interest from Lion Capital, the company would probably be filing for brankruptcy.
- [By Alanna Petroff]
Retailers Urban Outfitters (URBN) and American Apparel (APP) are expected to report earnings after the closing bell.
American Apparel delayed its results to give its new board extra time to review the firm's financials. The company has been in turmoil since its controversial CEO Dov Charney was ousted in June.
- [By Melvin Backman]
American Apparel (APP) shares are over 1% higher this morning on rumors that the company make be a potential takeover target. It's the latest twist impacting the brand. Last week the company fired controversial CEO Dov Charney. Now Charney has fired back, writing a letter to the board challenging his dismissal. The company continues to struggle to turn around its brand. The stock is trading for less than $1.
Top Industrial Disributor Companies To Watch In Right Now: PPL Corporation(PPL)
PPL Corporation, an energy and utility holding company, generates and sells electricity; and delivers natural gas to approximately 5.3 million utility customers primarily in the northeastern and northwestern U.S. The company operates in four segments: Kentucky Regulated, International Regulated, Pennsylvania Regulated, and Supply. The Kentucky Regulated segment engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity; and the distribution and sale of natural gas to approximately 1.3 million customers in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. The International Regulated segment owns and operates electricity distribution businesses in the United Kingdom that deliver electricity to 7.7 million customers. The Pennsylvania Regulated segment delivers electricity to approximately 1.4 million customers in eastern and central Pennsylvania. The Supply segment owns and operates power plants to generate electricity using coal, uranium, natural gas, oil, and water res ources; markets and trades electricity and other purchased power to wholesale and retail markets; and acquires and develops domestic generation projects. It controls or owns a portfolio of generation assets of approximately 11,000 megawatts in Montana and Pennsylvania. As of December 31, 2010, the company?s distribution system included 649 substations with a capacity of 25 million kVA, 28,838 circuit miles of overhead lines, and 24,131 cable miles of underground conductors in the United Kingdom. It also operated 377 substations with a capacity of 31 million kVA, 33,122 circuit miles of overhead lines, and 7,368 cable miles of underground conductors in Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Justin Loiseau]
Powering Pennsylvania
Heading east, PPL (NYSE: PPL ) announced Thursday that the Pennsylvania regulators have approved a new "Distribution System Improvement Charge" for its 1.4 million customers. - [By Justin Loiseau]
PPL pilots new energy reduction program
Across the pond, PPL's (NYSE: PPL ) British utility Western Power Distribution is trying to get its commercial customers to cut consumption. The company announced this week that it will be offering 15 businesses financial incentives to reduce their overall electricity use and/or shift use to non-peak hours. While reduced demand might seem backwards for any business model, an electricity use reduction would allow PPL to forgo costly upgrades to its current electricity system. And, as the utility's energy efficiency project manager points out, carbon emission targets provide an additional reason to increase efficiencies where possible.
Top Industrial Disributor Companies To Watch In Right Now: Avnet Inc. (AVT)
Avnet, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes electronic components, enterprise computer and storage products, and embedded subsystems in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. It operates in two segments, Electronics Marketing (EM) and Technology Solutions (TS). The EM segment markets and sells semiconductors; interconnect, passive, and electromechanical devices; and embedded products and embedded computing solutions, including technical design, integration, and assembly services to developers of application-specific computing solutions in the non-PC market. It also provides engineers with a host of technical design solutions in support of the sales process of complex products and technologies; engineering and technical resources to support product design, bill of materials development, design services, and technical education and training; and supply chain services focused on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), el ectronic manufacturing services providers, and electronic component manufacturers. This segment primarily serves electronic component manufacturers in various markets, including automotive, communications, computer hardware and peripheral, industrial and manufacturing, medical equipment, military and aerospace, telecommunications, industrial, and digital editing. The TS segment markets and sells mid-to high-end servers, data storage, and software, as well as provides services required to implement such products and solutions to the value-added reseller channel. It also focuses on the worldwide OEM market for computing technology, system integrators, independent software vendors, and non-PC OEMs that require embedded systems and solutions, including engineering, product prototyping, integration, and other value-added services. The company was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Avnet (NYSE: AVT ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Roberto Pedone]
One electronics wholesales player that insiders are active in here is Avnet (AVT), which distributes electronic components, enterprise computer and storage products, IT solutions and services, and embedded subsystems in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia/Pacific. Insiders are buying this stock into modest weakness, since shares are down by 4.3% so far in 2014.
Avnet has a market cap of $5.8 billion and an enterprise value of $6.9 billion. This stock trades at a reasonable valuation, with a trailing price-to-earnings of 12 and a forward price-to-earnings of 8.4. Its estimated growth rate for this year is 9.4%, and for next year it's pegged at 8.2%. This is not a cash-rich company, since the total cash position on its balance sheet is $928.97 million and its total debt is $2.08 billion. This stock currently sports a dividend yield of 1.4%.
A director just bought 191,000 shares, or about $7.91 million worth of stock, at $41.43 per share.
From a technical perspective, AVT is currently trending below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bearish. This stock recently formed a double bottom chart pattern at $40.90 to $40.77 a share. Following that bottom, shares of AVT have started to rip higher with strong upside volume flows.
If you're bullish on AVT, then I would look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above that recent low of $40.77 and then once it breaks out above its 200-day at $42.71 and its 50-day at $43.59 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 661,673 shares. If that breakout begins soon, then AVT will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $43.95 to $45.24 a share, or $45.53 a share. Any high-volume move above $45.53 will then give AVT a chance to re-fill its previous gap-down-day zone from April that started at
- [By Rich Duprey]
In an effort to help�European businesses select the correct advanced flash memory early in the design cycle, Avnet Memec (NYSE: AVT ) and Macronix International, a leading provider of non-volatile memory semiconductor solutions,�are joining forces to�bring NOR, NAND, and ROM technology to customers across�the continent.
- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Avnet (NYSE: AVT ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Top Industrial Disributor Companies To Watch In Right Now: Accuray Incorporated(ARAY)
Accuray Incorporated designs, develops, and sells medical radiation systems for the treatment of tumors anywhere in the body. The company offers the CyberKnife system, an image-guided robotic radiosurgery system used for the treatment of solid tumors. The system tracks, detects, and corrects for tumor and patient movement in real-time during the procedure, enabling delivery of precise, high dose radiation typically with sub-millimeter accuracy. The company also offers the TomoTherapy system, which consists of an integrated and versatile radiation therapy system used for the treatment of a range of cancer types. Accuray Incorporated markets its product through a direct sales force and distributors worldwide. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
Accuray (ARAY) has gained 2.7% to $9.03 after the surgical-device maker was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
Brady (BRC) has gained 1.7% to $28.38 after it was upgraded to Buy from Underperform at Merill Lynch.
- [By John Udovich]
Small cap robotic stock Adept Technology (NASDAQ: ADEP) has put in a very good performance this month verses its immediate peer�iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ: IRBT) as well as against medical robotic stocks like MAKO Surgical (NASDAQ: MAKO), Accuray Incorporated (NASDAQ: ARAY) and Hansen Medical, Inc (NASDAQ: HNSN). I should also mention that we have recently added Adept Technology to our SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity (SCN EO) portfolio (we are up 9% since last week) because we feel robotics is an improving sector as companies aim to reduce overhead and improve efficiencies through machine to machine (M2M) automation.
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