Bioseek Share Discussion Threads

[and then] 18/5/2011 18:29

Must have had one too many shandies i guess...

[retford1] 17/5/2011 17:12

Good entry level wywcu1, I need 20p to break even! Good luck.

[malcthesheepraider] 17/5/2011 16:11

Malctheraider- 17 May'11 - 16:02 - 181 of 181 (Filtered)

[spaceparallax] 17/5/2011 14:31

welcome aboard.

[wywcu1] 17/5/2011 14:21

just jumped on board 30K at 12.25p - let's see how it goes.

[spaceparallax] 17/5/2011 13:54

Good to see a broker reiteration with a 30p TP.

[spaceparallax] 17/5/2011 09:17

Great IMS - should help the share price bounce back nicely.

[and then] 14/5/2011 16:53

Aye, doing grand thanks! Lovin' it! :)

[spaceparallax] 13/5/2011 10:13

Old news Buywell.

[buywell2] 13/5/2011 00:51

''I now fear that Asterand's prospects for 2011 are poor and have substantially reduced my position, at a significant loss. The company continues to offer investors an optimistic view. I hope it succeeds, but now believe that the odds of a near-term price rise are much lower than I thought them to be in January.''

I think the chart could see 6p if the downtrend continues in line with previous rate of fall.

dyor





A tale of two City reactions to news

By David Schwartz
Published: May 6 2011 17:45 | Last updated: May 6 2011 17:45

T wo trading trends just caught my eye. The FTSE 250 index has out-performed other major UK indices in recent weeks. Also, several shares that I regularly monitor are bouncing up after being slammed by big declines.

The combination of these two themes has led me to seek shares within the 250 index that are ripe to rebound after painful declines.

A good example is Pace (PIC), the provider of television set-top boxes plus hardware solutions for digital and interactive services. Its shares fell sharply in March after 2010 results were released. Investors were spooked by what seemed to be an order cancellation from a large customer as well as its effort to steer City expectations lower for 2011.

I was struck by the fact that many analysts believe investors overreacted. They note that the customer merely delayed its order. Another plus is that profit margins are improving. The consensus profit forecast for 2011 is significantly ahead of last year.

The graph shows that prices sit near to an important support line. Also, many recent penetrations of the five-week moving average, up or down, were followed by significant continuation moves. Prices now sit close to this line. The company will issue an interim management statement next Thursday. A positive response could lead to a fresh continuation rally.

In contrast to my positive thoughts about Pace, my opinion about Asterand (ATD) has significantly deteriorated. The company supplies human tissue for drug research. It recently acquired BioSeek, enabling it to expand into drug compound testing.

I was very optimistic about Asterand in January when I wrote about it even though it had lost money in three of the past four years. Its shares had rallied for two months after a year-long decline. The BioSeek acquisition offered considerable profit potential. A recently completed cost-cutting programme was expected to boost profits, as was a huge contract with the US National Cancer Institute. Most important of all, the company was enormously optimistic about its future.

But once again, Asterand has disappointed me.

It announced in late-March that it would release its 2010 results on April 7. My alarm bells began to ring when on April 5 it suddenly announced a delay. Unexpected last-minute postponements often precede bad news.

The company explained that its bank suddenly blocked access to funds that were intended for the former owners of BioSeek, because of a deterioration in trading conditions.

I worried that the bank had scented a serious emerging problem. Other investors had similar concerns. Asterand's shares quickly lost one third of their value.

New worries emerged when 2010 results were belatedly released. Pre-tax losses were the same as in 2009 in spite of cost-cutting. BioSeek's contribution rose as expected but revenues from the rest of the company fell. Where was the expected revenue and profit improvement?

I also worry about the newly-signed US contract. The US faces a huge budget crisis and government contracts are being cancelled, delayed or reduced. We must not ignore this possibility for Asterand. Also, the amount of revenue to be realised from this contract in 2011 is quite small, probably in the $2m-$3m range.

Experience teaches me that these shares often surge on news of a big contract and then slump when the contract ends. I fear the current price is supported by the upcoming National Cancer Institute contract. If the US financial crisis hits this, the risk to investors is enormous. Another jarring note was the company's admission last week that it merely aims to break even in the short run, not turn a profit.

I now fear that Asterand's prospects for 2011 are poor and have substantially reduced my position, at a significant loss. The company continues to offer investors an optimistic view. I hope it succeeds, but now believe that the odds of a near-term price rise are much lower than I thought them to be in January.

Stock market historian David Schwartz is an active short-term trader writing about his own trades.

[eater24] 13/5/2011 00:28

tedious game of snakes and ladders this, the snakes seem to be winning , for the moment needs some positive news from the company now to get us back on the uptrend