My End of Year Review of GIG
INTRO Here's my semi-annual exercise to see if I remember why I own the stocks I own, and so I can check back and see if their stories have changed. I post in case it helps others too.
GigOptix
GIG (was GGOX) (market cap $0.041B)
GigOptix is a high tech company selling very high rate switches to telecommunications networks. Other applications exist, but predominantly, GigOptix makes and sells those critical components that allow some of the fastest, if not the fastest, switch rates between electrical and optical signals. Someone has to make the switch that lets us download and stream movies with hesitation. It wasn't possible before, but is possible now. They aren't the only ones selling into this market, but they are selling to this market that few except the techies see. Revenues have more than doubled in the last few years. Whatever competition they have isn't enough to pull away all of the market share. The company is quiet with press releases, and when they do announce something it can be hard to understand its significance because of the arcane nature of the technology.
Price to book and price to sales are both below 2, which is a good level for a construction firm, but surprisingly low for high tech electro-optics. My favorite analogy is f5 networks, which languished for many years because their products were aimed at the tech staff of similar companies. Eventually they made enough money that people noticed what they were doing, despite being overshadowed by a major competitor like Cisco.
Their market is growing. They're making money. Their products are relatively new. There is significant potential as word-of-mouth amongst techies (which is probably not word-of-mouth but a series of texts) gets around.
DISCLOSURE LTBH of LMRA since 2004. I'd be interested in buying more if I have discretionary cash (which I don't - let me check my lottery tickets). Unfortunately, I may have to sell if I can't find a job or sell my house.
(I've also collected links to the other discussion boards and my other stocks over on my blog trimbathcreative.wordpress.com . There is also a longer description of history between GIG and me on my blog trimbathcreative.wordpress.com |
