from thestreet.com
highest price after hours today was 3 3/4 per share
volume totalled about 1 1/2 mil
The Night Watch: Runnin' With
the Big 'Daws' in After-Hours
By Eric Gillin
Editorial Assistant
2/18/00 6:30 PM ET
The DAWK flies at night. No, not Darryl Dawkins,
the glass-shattering New Jersey Net. Try Daw
Technologies (DAWK:Nasdaq - news - boards), which
rose 9/16 to 2 1/4 on 700,000 shares on Island ECN.
Yesterday, a company press release touted $5.1 million
in new business. The individual clients were unnamed,
but Daw will engage in its primary business, creating
cleanrooms (places with a controlled atmosphere) used in
the semiconductor industry. Daw has already begun
servicing these contracts and expects work to be
completed by June 30.
Today was a good day for the Utah-based company,
which rose 55% on a million shares activity. That's more
than 25 times 1999's average daily activity of 40,000.
Gains and volume continued their growth after-hours.
Adding tonight's move to the day session move gives
Daw a hypothetical gain of 1 3/16, or 28.6%.
So where's all this interest coming from?
On Jan. 25, Intel (INTC:Nasdaq - news - boards)
announced that it was spending $2 billion to construct a
new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Arizona,
which touched off interest in companies that support and
service cleanrooms, an essential component in
chipmaking. Two weeks prior to that, Anadigics
(ANAD:Nasdaq - news - boards), a much smaller circuit
maker, announced that it would be expanding its
manufacturing plant.
Companies like Daw, which are engaged in the support
of semiconductor manufacturing, have received a great
deal of investor attention in the month since Intel's
announcement. Since that time, Daw is up more than a
full point, or 154.5%. Metron Technology
(MTCH:Nasdaq - news - boards), which also services
semiconductors, is up almost 3 points, or 15.1%. ATMI
(ATMI:Nasdaq - news - boards) is up more than 10
points, or 31.7%, since Jan. 25. Adept Technology
(ADTK:Nasdaq - news - boards), which makes products
used in automating semiconductor assembly lines, is up
35.4%.
Some semiconductor service companies like Metron,
Adept and Daw, have fairly small market caps and rarely
trade on seven-figure volume. Sure, they've popped over
the last three weeks and attracted a certain kind of
investor willing to take a risk. But, it's worth noting that
microcap stocks tend to be volatile and lack the liquidity
of larger stocks, so investors are encouraged to use
caution. |
