NEWS article Re: recent drop in KEI shares:
(I'll bet that Mr. Noel is picking up a few more shares at these reduced prices. Personally, I added to my position today at $76 and expect a near-term return to the $90 range)
siliconinvestor.com
"Keithley shares slip after meteoric rise"
NEW YORK, July 6 (Reuters) - The shares of Keithley Instruments Inc. (NYSE: KEI), whose stock shot up to 107 points this week from about 25 in late May, slipped 13.4 percent Thursday after the only analyst covering the stock said short- term investors probably should cash in.
The shares of Cleveland-based Keithley, which provides electrical measurement equipment for the telecommunications
semiconductor and electronic components industries, were down 12 points to 78-15/16 in early afternoon trading. The stock was the third largest percent loser and the second greatest net loser on the Big Board.
"I'm kind of backing off recommending the stock over the short term, but I still love the company," Pacific Growth Equities analyst Joe Noel said Thursday. "Relative to its peers, it's too expensive."
Keithley shares the market with other hot companies such as Digital Lightwave Inc. (NASDAQ: DIGL), EXFO Electro-Optical
Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ: EXFO), National Instruments Corp. (NASDAQ: NATI), Newport Corp. (NASDAQ: NEWP) Tektronix Inc.
(NYSE: TEK), Waters Corp. (NYSE: WAT) and Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A).
In a research note Wednesday, Noel wrote that he expected the stock to take a breather over the short run and then continue to move up as Wall Street fully discovers the once little known stock in the hot areas of fiber and optical networking.
"They had a couple of really good quarters," he said Thursday. "Here's a little company sitting in Cleveland and the Street had never heard of them. It was perfect story for the Street to eat up."
Noel expects the company to report fiscal third quarter earnings of $3.2 million, or 33 cents a share, but said he would be surprised if the company did not come in a bit higher.
He maintained a strong buy raging and set a long-term price target of $130.
"At this time, however, we urge investors to know what they are buying in this developing sector and to understand that we expect
high degrees of volatility in these stocks," Noel wrote in the research note.
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