Sonic Innovations, Inc. Q4 2007 Earnings Call Transcript

Sonic Innovations, Inc. (SNCI)

Q4 2007 Earnings Call

American Eagle Outfitters' Wings May Be Falling Off

William Ellard submits:

Over the past 10 years, the eagle has soared into the stratosphere. From about $1 a share in 1997, American Eagle's (AEO) stock price rose to over $30 in 2007. Like poor Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and ended up in the Icarian Sea, American Eagle's wings are now damaged, and its new flight pattern is unfortunately down.

American Eagle's new same-stores sales were just released. Down 12% from last March. Total sales were down 2%. Ouch! But wait, the numbers get even worse. AEO is now lowering its earnings guidance to .18 -.20 a share for the first quarter of 2008. This is about 50% less than last year. Also since last March, AEO has bought back about 8% of its outstanding shares, so actual net earnings will be down about 55% from last year's Q1. Margins are obviously getting squeezed big-time.

Town Sports International: Follow-Up

Tony Kent submits:

I wanted to address some issues that have been expressed in the comment section to my article on Town Sports International Club (CLUB).

The Company’s financial position:

General Electric Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

General Electric Company (GE)

Q1 2008 Earnings Call

Two Hidden Gems: Adams Golf, Boss Holdings

Mark Sadler Perkins submits:

A hidden gem is a small company with good fundamentals and a lot of potential. They might also not have the best fundamentals but a good outlook and a severe undervaluation. Tons of analysts haven't started following the stock yet. If a company has a good profitable business but sells for less than its discounted future earnings and cash flows or less than its liquid or tangible assets, I'm interested.

Adams Golf Inc. (ADGF) makes golf clubs. They just moved to the Nasdaq last month. They are a $53 million company that turned around and became profitable in 2003. They have tangible assets per share of $9.84 and a current price of only $8.60. That's interesting, but these next points are fascinating: Over the last five years they grew revenues at a 20% compound average growth rate and have consistent profitability. They have a good balance sheet and zero long-term debt. They generate double-digit return on equity and assets without using leverage. Management is consistently growing shareholder equity year over year.

Is Microsoft Drinking Google's Maps Milkshake?

Erick Schonfeld submits:

Last night, Microsoft (MSFT) pushed out a ton of new features to Windows Live Maps, including a face-lift to some of its 3-D cities (Las Vegas, Dallas, Denver and Phoenix), the ability to export your collections to GPS devices, and GeoRSS feeds (which means I can make custom maps for my Dash GPS), support for 3D-map video tours, better directions and traffic information, and also one-click directions that change the route on a map based on what direction you are coming from.

But there was one feature that really caught my eye. You can now import KML files into Live Maps. KML stands for Keyhole Markup Language, and it was invented by Keyhole, the acquired startup behind Google Earth that is now part of Google (GOOG). KML has become a standard for describing maps hosted on the Web.

Microsoft's Windows Is a Glacier That Won't Melt Fast

Larry Dignan (ZDNet) submits:

Boy, this Windows collapsing under its own weight argument has some legs.

A few points about this Gartner presentation two days ago, which has raised quite a ruckus on Techmeme. The analysts argued Wednesday morning that Windows was collapsing under its own weight because the code is too bulky. Microsoft (MSFT) has to support all of these legacy applications. The fix was to become more modular, which is something Microsoft has already acknowledged. Vista has its problems, but as Mary Jo Foley adds: Reports of Windows'' demise are greatly exaggerated.

Does the World Need Rich Venture Capitalists?

Felix Salmon submits:

Fred Wilson's blog entry about "a new path to liquidity" has resulted in a spectacular outpouring of very high-level comments, as well as responses from other bloggers such as Roger Ehrenberg. But I'm not at all convinced that there's really a problem requiring a solution here.

For one thing, the "liquidity" that Wilson and Ehrenberg are talking about is not the same thing as the liquidity which went so disastrously missing from the financial system over the past few months, or the liquidity that the Fed is trying to inject into banks. No, Fred and Roger's "liquidity" is really just a euphemism for "selling at a high price and making lots of money." Here's Wilson:

Tivo Celebrates, While EchoStar May Mourn

Eric Savitz (Barron's) submits:

The U.S. Court of Appeals has turned down EchoStar’s bid to overturn a lower court ruling that found it had violated digital video recorder patents held by TiVo (TIVO).

TiVo just issued a celebratory statement on the ruling:

Taylor Capital Group, Inc. Q4 2007 Earnings Call Transcript

Taylor Capital Group, Inc. (TAYC)

Q4 2007 Earnings Call

Boyd Gaming Corp.: Worth a Gamble?

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