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Analyst Interviews
To view Interviews: highlight & left click on the
company name!
August 22,
2008
Financial, Technology, Basic Materials, Healthcare, Alternative
Infrastructure, Consumer Goods & Energy
Financial
Regional – Southwest Banks
Analyst Interview Covering:
First State Bancorporation (FSNM-NASDAQ)
Peyton N. Green, Senior Analyst, Financial
Institutions Group, FTN Midwest Securities Corp.
“First State Bancorporation is buy-rated given a discounted valuation
approximating 65% of tangible book value and our belief that the Company
will get past its recent credit quality woes and return the franchise to
solid profitability and strong EPS growth. Based on our analysis, we believe
that the economy in New Mexico will be stronger than most expect. Also, the
Colorado economy should outperform the national economy.” -
Peyton N. Green
August 8, 2008
Energy, Technology, Services, Mining & Basic Materials
Energy
Oil & Gas Exploration
Analyst Interview Featuring: Highpine Oil & Gas Limited (HPX-TSX)
Kim Page, Director – Energy Research
Wellington West Capital Markets, Inc.
“The area is a massive reef complex containing numerous large light oil
and gas pools. The initial discovery in the oil prone portion of the
resource trend was approximately 8 years ago, and there have been over 30
new pools discovered since. It was the advent of technology and the
refinement of 3D seismic imaging of these Nisku pools that has increased
Highpine’s discovery success rate to over 60%.” - Kim Page
May 16, 2008
Technology, Financial, Mining, Services, Energy & Healthcare
Energy
Security
Money Manager Interview Covering:
Eurocontrol Technics Inc. (EUO-TSX: V)
James Guiang, Senior Portfolio Manager, Managing Director
Millennium Global Natural Resources Fund
Offering What Could Be An Industry Standard Hydrocarbon Marking
Technology For National And International Companies Identifying Their
Products Is Giving Eurocontrol Exceptional High-Growth Potential
Financial
Southeast Community Banks
Analyst Interview Covering:
Green Bankshares, Inc. (GRNB-NASDAQ)
P. Carter Bundy, CFA, Vice President
Stifel, Nicolaus & Company
“I’ve given Green Bankshares a ‘buy’ rating, with a $23 target price.
People should be looking at the stock because it returns excellent returns
on tangible equity. It’s projected this year to do, let’s just say mid-teens
about 15% returns on tangible equity and likely to do that out in 2009 and
potentially better.” - P. Carter Bundy, CFA
April 4, 2008
Healthcare, Technology, Metals/Mining, Exploration, Aerospace, Distributors,
Energy & Services
Retail
Consumer Goods
Analyst Interview covering: Big Lots, Inc. (BIG)
Joan Storms, CFA, Wedbush Morgan Securities
“Big Lots fits nicely into the discount category because it is the largest
closeout retailer in the United States. Their core customer is not
necessarily the dollar store customer because they can and do charge higher
prices as long as it represents a good value to the customer.” - Joan
Storms, CFA
November 9,
2007
Services, Exploration, Energy, Airlines, Healthcare, Financial,
Communications, CATV Systems & Telecommunications
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
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