History tends to repeat itself, if that’s the case, the good start of the market this morning may not end on a dramatic slide pushing the larger markets into the red. The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P are all up as of 8:35a.m. CDT, but anything can happen over the course of the day with the market’s recent volatile trend.
Nova Measuring Instruments (Nasdaq: NVMI) is following the lead by starting the day off strong. The stock price is currently up 30 cents, or 11 percent, to $3.01 on volume of 81, 230. The jump this morning was caused by news that revenues for Nova in the second quarter increased by 29 percent year over year. This is following the 11 percent increase in revenues the company experienced in the first quarter of this year.
“We are pleased to report that, within 12 months of the management reorganization, our initiatives have resulted in significant revenue growth and a long-awaited return to profitability,” said Gabi Seligsohn, president and CEO, in a statement. “In addition to continued market share gains and penetration of new market segments, the impact of our cost reduction programs, and the contribution of high-margin software sales have also helped us achieve this goal. We have succeeded in significantly lowering our breakeven point, and will continue to focus on profitability going forward.”
Along with the strong growth experienced in revenues this year, net profit also made a significant jump of its own. Last year the company had a loss of $600,000, but was able to make an amazing turnaround for the second quarter of 2007 generating a profit of $1.1 million.
Another strong gainer this morning, FiberTower Corp. (Nasdaq: FTWR) has increased its share price by 16 percent, or 58 cents, to $4.11 on volume of 740,000. The wireless backhaul provider, Nova, entered into an agreement with Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) to provide backhaul services in seven of the wireless carrier’s initial WiMax launch markets. Unable to disclose the terms of the agreement, the company could disclose Sprint’s deployment is based on providing Ethernet-based backhaul, a first for any mobile backhaul provider.
“We are extremely pleased and excited to have been selected by Sprint Nextel to be the first backhaul provider to deploy commercial Ethernet services,” said Michael Gallagher, FiberTower’s president and CEO.
FiberTower’s unique hybrid network architecture, consisting of microwave and fiber technologies, provides backhaul transport that is highly reliable, cost-effective and scalable as Sprint Nextel continues its deployment of next-generation wireless services.
Barry West, CTO and president of Sprint Nextel’s 4G Mobile Broadband division, stated earlier, “We aim to maintain our position as the leader in broadband mobility and believe that our relationship with FiberTower will support that goal. FiberTower’s superior service quality, flexibility and scalability are a perfect fit for our next-generation network plans and we look forward to dramatically expanding this relationship going forward.”
Iomai Corp. (Nasdaq: IOMI) today announced its patch-based vaccine for enterotoxigenic E. coli bacteria conferred statistically significant protection from travelers’ diarrhea as compared to a placebo, particularly for more severe cases, according to interim data from a double blind Phase 2 study.
“The results from this study strongly suggest that the use of Iomai’s needle-free, patch-based vaccine can have a notable impact in reducing the chances of suffering from the ravages of travelers’ diarrhea,” said Herbert L. DuPont, M.D., professor and director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at The University of Texas School of Public Health and the principal investigator on the trial.
Vaccinated travelers were 75 percent less likely to suffer moderate or severe diarrhea from any cause and 84 percent less likely to be afflicted by severe diarrhea. No vaccine-related serious adverse events were reported. Share price rose 28 cents, or 16 percent, to $1.96 per share on volume of 185 thousand this morning.