BTU International (BTUI)
Company
"BTU International is a market-leading supplier of advanced thermal processing equipment to the electronics manufacturing and alternative energy generation markets. BTU manufactures reflow furnaces for printed circuit board assembly as well as for wafer-level packaging and die-level packaging. BTU also provides thermal process equipment for the solar cell, fuel cell and nuclear fuel industries. BTU, with headquarters in North Billerica, MA, operates worldwide with direct sales and service offices in the USA, Asia and Europe." (company website)
Buy
18-Oct-06. BTU Int'l has been on my watch list for a while now, and after it pierced the $13 level I put in a limit order to buy at $12.45; the order executed this morning. I immediately put in a trailing stop of $1.25 (10% of my purchase price) to protect against loss and prevent gains (if there are any) from dribbling away through "it might go back up" thinking. The 50-day moving average has turned up, and BTUI pulled back to kiss the average last week.
- Price momentum (PPO) — steady increase over last three months
- Trend (ADX) — strengthening after buying pressure (+DI) crossed above selling pressure (-DI)
- Money flow (CMF) — oscillating around neutral
- Relative strength (RSI) — around neutral for several weeks
- Volume — not heavily traded, but each day this week has seen slightly higher volumes
Earnings are due out next week, and that could change things dramatically. Stay tuned!
Sell
Bottom line-7%
24-Oct-06. Suspicious minds want to know — What's going on with BTUI? Until today, it looked like BTUI would be content to bob along just above my purchase price until earnings were reported after the bell this afternoon. But beginning just after 2pm ET today, the bottom dropped out, for no apparent reason.
BTUI today
Whenever this happens, I always get suspicious that someone told somebody something they shouldn't have, the kind of thing Martha Stewart and her broker went to jail for. Small-time investors could be forgiven for thinking the deck is stacked against them. In today's chart (left), note how the volume suddenly picked up between 2pm and 3pm ET, culminating with almost 20,000 shares trade in a single five-minute interval near the end of the hour? Somebody dumped a lot of shares all at once. Inquiring minds want to know!
After the bell
Here are the bottom-line paragraphs from the company's earnings press release:
Net sales for the quarter ended October 1, 2006, were $18.3 million, down two percent compared to $18.5 million for the third quarter of 2005, and down 19 percent compared to sales of $22.5 million in the preceding quarter. [Emphasis added]
Net income for the 2006 third quarter was up 48 percent at $2.3 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, compared to a net income of $1.6 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, reported in the third quarter of 2005, and down 27 percent compared to a net income of $3.2 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, in the preceding quarter. [Emphasis added]
