Cognos, Mosaid shares take flight
By SUSAN TAYLOR, Ottawa Sun
Two unlikely hi-tech firms, known recently for declining share
values, were major stock market darlings yesterday.
Cognos ballooned $6.90 -- up 25% -- on the TSE. On the U.S.
Nasdaq, the stock was up $4.25 to close at $21.87, a gain of
24%, as 1.5 million shares were traded.
Mosaid Technologies Inc., which has hovered in the $4 range
since late August, soared $1.50 on the TSE yesterday. Making a
34% gain, the stock closed the day at $5.90.
It's a far cry from the $15 peak Mosaid shares hit this year, but
an impressive gain over the $3.55 low.
While 15,000 Mosaid shares trade daily on average, yesterday
saw 71,000 shares exchanged.
Some analysts suggested a jump in Micron Technology Inc., a
memory chip producer, helped buoy the shares. One analyst said
Micron, trading in the $50 US range, could hit $200.
It's another sign of resurrection in the moribund semiconductor
sector, which is suffering an extended slump.
A rebound could fuel Mosaid shares to $25, said an analyst who
asked not to be named. "We're into the Santa Claus rally."
A report from Toronto's Octagon Capital Canada Corp. points
out Mosaid is ready for a the sector's revival.
"We believe that Mosaid has been reinventing itself for a
powerful turnaround," it says. "Unfortunately, it is the health of the
Asian economies which will dictate the the timing of the
turnaround in the global semiconductor industry."
Research groups predict recovery will fall some time between the
end of 1999 and early 2000. "The market has bottomed out,"
said Octagon analyst Daniel Kim. "The question is how quickly
and to what degree the turnaround will be."
The surge in Cognos stock comes a day after the firm released
second quarter results that showed record revenue fuelled largely
by Web-based software.
"I'm a little surprised by the magnitude of the (share) play," said
Duncan Stewart, a Tera Capital Corp. partner who manages the
Navigator Canadian Technology Fund.
He added the company's stock fell the previous day, $1 on the
TSE, and the sluggish share is "a bit of a laggard."
Cognos also announced it spent $10 million US in stock and cash
to acquire U.K-based Relational Matters plc.
That firm's technology, which quickly pulls together data from
various sources and loads it into data marts, fits with Cognos
business intelligence tools such as PowerPlay. The combined
offering helps Cognos target large-scale enterprise customers.
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