===== Thursday, November 13 =====
JADE today announced continuing strong growth in sales and a sharp rise in net income for the third quarter, ending September 30, 2003.
Third Quarter Highlights
Revenues exceed guidance; year-over-year acceleration continues
Net income triples
Nine-month revenue up 22% over 2002
Q4 results to be bolstered by new customer orders
Revenues for the third quarter of 2003 were $16.9 million, up 37% from $12.4 million in the same quarter a year earlier. This was 9% over the high end of earlier guidance of $15.5 million and it marked the third quarter in which year-over-year revenue growth exceeded 20%.
For the third quarter, the company achieved net income of $701,000, or $0.07 per diluted share, up from $232,000, or $0.03 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2002. For the first nine months of 2003, net income was $1.2 million, or $0.12 per diluted share, up from a loss of ($7.5 million), or ($0.87) per diluted share in the comparable period of 2002.
JADE’s Chairman and CEO Yu Chuan Yih said, "LJ International's third quarter results show the continuing successful progress of our strategy to return the company to its high historic growth rates. Following the cost-cutting and organizational improvements in the prior two years, the company in 2003 has been aggressively working to expand distribution channels and capture new markets with new product lines. Toward that end, we booked substantial new orders with two of the largest TV shopping channels in the U.S., and we opened a new U.S. office for both sales and investor relations."
"At the same time," Mr. Yih continued "we have begun to establish our retail presence in the vast and growing Chinese consumer market. Our aim is to eventually recreate or exceed the growth there that we have experienced in the U.S. With a worldwide sales effort now under way, we expect our revenue growth going forward to stay well into the double-digit levels we have seen this year."
XYBR today announced their fiscal results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2003. Total revenue for the third quarter of 2003 was $2.7 million, a 6% increase from the same period in 2002. These results represent the second highest levels of both U.S. revenues as well as worldwide consulting revenues in the company's history.
At September 30, the company had no long-term debt, record
quarter-end cash of over $13 million and record
stockholders' equity of over $17 million.
The net loss for the third quarter of 2003 decreased 41% to $4.7 million from the third quarter of 2002. The net loss per share also decreased to $0.03 per share from $0.10 per share in the prior year.
Thomas D. Davis, CFO, noted, "Our cash and stockholders equity balances are both at record levels, we have no long term debt and we have successfully cut costs for seven consecutive quarters. I continue to believe that we have the strongest financial position since our IPO."
"Perhaps one of the best measures of our success is our ability to replicate customer wins in strategic markets," stated Steven A. Newman, President of XYBR. "For example, since the Company's inception, we have secured hardware and services contracts in the transportation sector, alone, surpassing more than $10 million. This focused approach is also producing similar strong results in many other targeted industries. Our future has never looked brighter."
JMAR today reported their results for the third quarter of 2003 ended September 30. The company reported a net loss for the quarter ended September 30, 2003 of $624,161, compared to a net loss for the quarter ended September 30, 2002 of $2,836,656.
Revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2003 declined 39% to $3,964,930 from revenues of $6,462,633 in the corresponding quarter of 2002. For the nine months ended September 30, 2003, revenues declined 6% to $13,726,298 from $14,656,910 in the comparable period of 2002.
Ronald A. Walrod, JMAR's CEO said, "The anticipated financial consequence of the tough but necessary action we took earlier in the year to sell JPSI and reduce staff is now starting to show up as a significant improvement to our bottom line. Over the past quarter, JMAR has become a leaner, more focused company and management will continue to act aggressively to align JMAR's cost structure to its revenue base."
JMAR CFO, Dennis E. Valentine commented, "The significant improvement in the bottom line for the third quarter of 2003 as compared to both the second quarter of 2003 and the corresponding quarter of 2002, is a strong indicator of the positive actions taken by management in the last year. That this improvement came despite lower revenues is particularly noteworthy."
PDYN's share price has been climbing sharply all day on news that the company has joined an interoperability testing program for voice over Internet protocol (IP) networks and multimedia applications with Nortel Networks.
Nortel has completed interoperability testing with several leading third party vendors, and is either in the process of testing or working towards interoperability testing with several others. The company has initiated testing between PDYN's CPX 1000 voice access gateway and their own softswitch portfolio.
In trading today, PDYN's share price has risen 82 cents to $4.50; trouncing their previous 52-week high of $3.93. Today's new high also represents an increase of 148.6% over our initial profile price of $1.81.
After the markets closed yesterday CVGR announced their fiscal results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2003. Net revenue for the quarter was $3.9 million as compared to the $6.0 million reported for the same period last year.
The net loss for the quarter was $392 thousand, compared to net income of $380 thousand, for the same period last year. The results largely reflect the impact of lower than anticipated levels of new business awards in the first nine months of the year, the winding down of several larger studies in the later stages of their development cycles and increases to the estimated costs to complete several studies.
Kenneth M. Borow, M.D., President and CEO, commented, "We remain very optimistic regarding the future. The results for the quarter reflect the impact of experiencing a slow period for our Company. We have maintained tight control over operating expenses during this period. At the same time, we have endeavored to position ourselves to take full advantage of opportunities as market conditions improve."
Earlier this morning CVGR announced that the landmark results of the REVERSAL Trial were presented yesterday in Orlando at the 2003 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA).
As reported in a front page article in today's New York Times, entitled Study of Two Cholesterol Drugs Finds One Halts Heart Disease, "The first study to compare two powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs head-to- head in coronary artery disease finds one clearly superior. In patients taking Pravachol, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb, atherosclerosis worsened slowly over 18-months. But the disease was halted in those who took the highest dose of Lipitor, the drug made by Pfizer."
Kenneth M. Borow, M.D., CVGR’s President and CEO, commented, "Covalent is exceptionally proud of our association with the REVERSAL study. As the clinical research organization for REVERSAL, Covalent was intimately involved with Dr. Nissen in the trial's conceptualization, design and writing, operational management and data flow processes."
EDSN announced yesterday that its shareholders approved a merger agreement to take the company private with a company formed by an affiliate of Liberty Partners, a New York based private equity firm, and H. Christopher Whittle, EDSN’s Founder and CEO.
Over 80% of the roughly 55 million votes cast supported the merger to take the company private. Approximately 14 million votes were not cast. The final percentage of outstanding votes cast in favor of the merger was 65.7%.
"Today's vote is an important step in an exciting new chapter in Edison's history," said Mr. Whittle. "As we return to being a private company, Edison's mission -- to help our partners provide a world-class education to every child we serve -- remains unchanged. We will continue to partner with school districts, charter boards, public school teachers, and community organizations to raise student achievement through schools and programs."
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