Healthcare
Drug Development Services
Analyst Interview Covering
PharmaNet Development Group, Inc.(Nasdaq-PDGI)
David Windley, Managing Director
Jefferies & Company, Inc.
‘I think investors should look at Pharmanet as a participant in a very rapidly growing space. One of the factors that I didn’t mention earlier was that in addition to the underlying growth of development spending at about 10 or 11%, an increasing percentage of that spending is being outsourced, so the outsourced industry is growing closer to 15 to 20%. Pharmanet is a participant in that industry growth. Because of their issues in 2006, they have trailed the industry averages and have the opportunity to trend up toward industry averages. They are run by a very seasoned management, with Jeff McMullen and his team, a very large part of which have been with him for years. So from a take-away stand point I would look at Pharmanet as a quality player in a segment of healthcare that is growing very rapidly on an organic basis with some opportunity to improve margins and drive earnings growth faster than revenue growth.” - David Windley

September 14, 2007
Manufacturing, Services, Healthcare, Industrial Goods, Technology, Financial, Exploration, Consumer Goods & Energy

Technology
Analyst Interview Covering:
Ansoft Corp. (Nasdaq-ANST)
Bradley L. Mook, CFA, Boenning & Scattergood, Inc.
“Right now they are seeing growth from a number of areas. The technology becomes increasingly important as the world continues to move in that direction. Specifically we are seeing it from automotive with the increasing electronic content in cars, in particular hybrids. Consumer electronics companies are using their design tools and there is a lot of strength out of Asia right now for some of the consumer electronics applications. Just last quarter they said that wireless infrastructure equipment is making a bit of a comeback. There are various pockets that are driving the strength now but in general it tends to be broad based.” - Bradley L. Mook, CFA

May 25, 2007
Financial, Consumer Goods, Healthcare & Exploration

Financial
Regional Banks
Analyst Interview Covering:
First State Bancorporation (FSNM-NASDAQ)
Peyton N. Green, Senior Analyst, Financial Institutions Group
FTN Midwest Securities Corp.
“The CEO, Michael R. Stanford, along with COO, H. Patrick Dee, have been with the company since the early days. What is most impressive is that they took a community bank with a strong position in Taos, which is not a growth market, and have created the largest local bank in Albuquerque, after starting basically from scratch. Back in 1994 when they moved into Albuquerque, they had maybe 1% market share, which has blossomed into 14%, positioning First State as the third largest bank in the MSA and the largest local bank. Over 80% of the growth was organic. They went from a position of not even being known to one of being very visible in New Mexico over the last 14 years. At the time, no one gave them much of a chance. Certainly in much of the 1990’s, there was a ton of M&A activity in New Mexico and First State benefited from being stable and in a growth mode.”

“We feel 10% balance sheet growth will look pretty good over the next couple of years, maybe even 3 years. We believe that First State will do better than that given its concentration in the inter-mountain West. Separately, management’s focus on improving bottom-line profitability, should enable earnings per share (“EPS”) to grow 15 to 20% over the next couple of years; coupled with the pullback in the valuation over the past six months, the opportunity for above average top-line and bottom-line revenue and EPS growth makes the shares particularly interesting in our opinion. Again, we believe top line balance sheet growth should be 10%-plus and bottom line growth should approach 15 to 20%.” - Peyton N. Green, Senior Analyst, Financial Institutions Group, FTN Midwest Securities Corp.

February 15, 2007
Healthcare, Exploration, Technology, Industrial Goods Telecommunications & Financial

Healthcare
Biotechnology & Drugs
Analyst Interview Covering: Vical Incorporated (VICL-NASDAQ)
George Fulop MD, Vice President, Biotechnology & Life Sciences
Needham & Co.
“Vical has a unique technology that caught my attention; they used DNA vaccines and address many conditions ranging from HIV to influenza and even avian flu. They have a unique technology that I think is promising and an alternative to traditional vaccine development.” - George Fulop MD