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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Rat dog micro-cap picks... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tsigprofit who wrote (9331)	10/21/2002 10:14:57 AM
From: Bucky Katt	Respond to of 48461

Those 2, or any of the rat-biotechs represent a good chance for a lottery ticket gain, you just never know when it will happen...

To: tsigprofit who wrote (9331)	10/21/2002 12:51:50 PM
From: Bucky Katt	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 48461

Speaking of the bio/medi arena, BLUD has an interesting story in IBD today> Investor's Business Daily Medical Supplier Makes Move To Automate Monday October 21, 11:13 am ET By Marilyn Alva When it comes to screening blood before it's used in transfusions, many labs still prefer man over machine. That's changing, however. Thanks in part to a shortage of blood technologists, manual testing could go the way of the typewriter. Enter Immucor Inc. The company makes automated instrument and reagent systems for blood transfusions. It's taking advantage of the wide-open market opportunity through new products and sheer muscle. Only about 15% of the blood transfusion testing market uses automated systems, according to industry experts. Immucor estimates it has about a 54% market share in that niche. The rest is mostly held by Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Clinical Diagnostics division. Until the last few years, the field wasn't always so narrow, and that made business tough for everyone. Competition kept prices low - about 25 cents a test. But after the smaller firms got swallowed up, those left standing were able to raise prices without difficulty. Last year, Immucor started signing three-year contracts with buying groups that had built-in price hikes of as much as 200% in some areas. Average test costs now are $1.25. About 19% of Immucor's revenue for the fiscal year ended May 31 came from price increases, says Chief Executive Edward Gallup. "And we expect $6.5 million to $7 million in price increases ending next May," Gallup said. It's well on its way. Company officials say price hikes in North America caused a 23.6% increase in reagent revenue during the fiscal first quarter ended Aug. 31. Total sales for the quarter gained 25% to $23.2 million. Earnings more than doubled to 23 cents a share. The largest portion of Immucor's revenue comes from reagents it sells to work in conjunction with the testing instruments. Since those chemical agents - used to test blood for reactions - can be used only once, they generate a recurring revenue stream. The company likens the business to a razor/razor blade model. "When customers buy our instruments, they must use our reagents," Gallup said. The importance of related reagents to Immucor's future was made clear in August. That's when an analyst for Sterling Financial Investment Group warned that private instrument maker Olympus was gearing up to make its own reagents to rival Immucor's. Immucor's shares dropped about 30% on the news. But it was really an Immucor subsidiary, Gamma Biologicals Inc., that was gearing up to make special reagents to go with an Olympus instrument. That machine is meant for high-volume blood banks - not a big focus for Immucor. Only after Gallup assured investors it was not at risk did shares recover. "Reagent sales for the Olympus instrument are not material to Immucor's operations," Gallup said in a statement at the time. Last week he went a step further, saying that "if anything, it adds to our business." Much of that business is with small- and midsize hospitals, which are still mostly performing infusion-related blood tests manually. That leaves a lot of room to grow the business, says analyst Jim Gentrup of Provident Equity Research. To a lesser degree, the company also sells to blood donor centers and large clinical labs. Analysts like Immucor's business model for another reason: It doesn't follow economic cycles. "Blood tests aren't cut back when the economy slows down," said John Howard, analyst with TM Capital Corp. "This business should be very recession resistant." Analysts also sound encouraged by the prospects of new business in Europe with Immucor's latest product, a fully automated blood analyzer called the Galileo. The product is designed to produce high throughput. That's a valuable commodity in Europe, where testing facilities are open only eight hours a day as opposed to the U.S.' round-the-clock operations. "Apparently, there is no other machine in the world that can match (Galileo's) throughput capabilities," Gentrup wrote in a report. The Galileo is nine times faster than Immucor's fully automated ABS-2000 machine, sold mostly in the U.S. Since June, Immucor has sold 13 Galileos in Europe. Sales to Germany and France are expected to kick in soon. The instrument isn't approved in the U.S. Company officials told analysts they expect to sell 25 Galileo units in Europe by next May. Each machine sells for around $120,000. "It's pretty obvious we should beat our . . . estimate for the year, but we will stick with the number," Gallup said. Immucor expects overall revenue to hit $94 million to $96 million this fiscal year, up from $84 million last year. Analysts polled by First Call estimate fiscal 2003 earnings will grow 32% to $1.02 a share, then move up another 22% the following year.