BRIGHT FUTURE FOR GSLI!
Monday May 15 5:19 PM ET
GSI Lumonics Up 14 Percent After Bullish Forecast
TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares of GSI Lumonics Inc. (Toronto:LSI.TO - news) (NasdaqNM:GSLI - news) rose more than 14 percent on Monday after the laser-equipment manufacturer presented a bullish outlook at a week-long investor conference in San Francisco.
The Kanata, Ontario-based firm's shares closed at C$34.90, up C$4.40, on the Toronto Stock Exchange. On Nasdaq, the shares closed at $23 11/16, up 15.2 percent from Friday's close of $20 9/16.
``There was a good reception to the company and to the story by a broader audience than GSI would have perhaps been in front of,'' said Joe Arsenio, an analyst with Hambrecht & Quist in New York.
GSI chief executive Charles Winston told 18 leading technology analysts and 110 chiefs of technology companies last week that he thought earnings would grow more rapidly than sales in coming quarters.
He said income would rise at a higher rate because of efficiencies created by the March 1999 merger between Kanata-based Lumonics Inc. and Watertown, Mass.-based General Scanning Inc.
GSI Lumonics, which raised C$68 million ($45.6 million) through a secondary offering of four million shares in April, reported a first-quarter net income earlier in May of $4.9 million, or 13 cents per share, on sales of $87.9 million.
Arsenio said analysts and investors were particularly interested in the company's recent move to begin supplying fiber-optic components to its customers in the industrial and telecommunications sectors.
``In the optical component business, there is a perception that it has a significant growth potential,'' Arsenio said.
GSI's stock began its climb in December and soared to its highest point ever of C$37.50 on February 28, during the high-tech rally on Nasdaq that boosted technology stocks around the world.
``The company's shares have been successful following the secondary offering,'' Arsenio said. ``The stock is not overpriced, relative to its earnings.''
He added: ``I think there is continued interest in the stock. The story is attractive. |
