Thursday November 2, 10:25 am Eastern Time
GSI third quarter results send stock higher
(UPDATE: In U.S. dollars unless noted.)
OTTAWA, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Shares in GSI Lumonics Inc. (Toronto:LSI.TO - news) (NasdaqNM:GSLI - news) rose up to five percent early on Thursday as investors reacted to promising signs of growth for one of the world's top 3 laser-equipment manufacturers.
The company, which has attracted investor attention with its small fiber-optic components unit, on Wednesday reported strong third-quarter sales of $97.6 million and forecast for the first time revenues of $100 million for its fourth quarter.
BMO Nesbitt Burns analyst Brian Piccioni, who upgraded the stock to an outperform from a market perform, said the issue represents ``a reasonably cheap stock.''
``The results were a little bit below expectations, but we had downgraded the stock when it was on the way to C$64.00, so it's well below where we downgraded it,'' he said.
``The mystery factor here is there's so much attention paid to the company's optics business -- which is a fairly small amount of their revenues -- that you never really know what the market's reaction is going to be.''
GSI Lumonics reported net earnings of 17 cents per share, which included 2.5 cents per share from the sale of net assets. Analysts, who had not factored in that gain, were expected the company to report net earnings of 16 cents per share.
The company's optical components division recorded sales of about $3.6 million in the quarter which are forecast to reach $4.2 million in the fourth quarter. The company said that unit should represent 10 percent of sales next year.
Shares in GSI Lumonics added $0-11/16 to $15-5/16 on the Nasdaq and gained C$1.15 to C$23.50 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The stock has whipsawed from a 52-week high of $43-8/16 to a low of $6-3/16 on the Nasdaq and C$64.00 to C$9.15 on the Toronto bourse amid euphoria for optical stocks. |
