was walking in toys R us and remembered this old one by stoney... came back home and noticed that LF has a Nice pull back from $3 last week. Is that due to xmas sale anticipation ??? will it be back to $6...!!! is any one in the game ?
Come on my friend. Who cares about what happened to stoney... and that was his call Looong time ago Now, I personally think LF deserves the $6 line again, But since my main activity is not stocks , I was wondering what ET folks say about LF
HA HA HA HA HA SO BUSTED!!! Oh boy. I'm going to start going through the old stuff to see who was badmouthing ole' stoney!!! Oh my. I just spit my water out reading that on my new WRITING DESK!! Ok now I sat here and really thought about this-- there must of been one stk I bought here that didn't do great. I remembered this fine piece and in fact reading it I see we made a lot on the trade... take that Doc.... by the way Dr's are the WORST investors that has been proven... anyway I got to thinking WHAT THE HECK IS THIS STOCK DOING DOWN HERE SO CHEAP!!!! And with a new product just around the bend... Status update! My boy does not use the Leapster much anymore he is at that age when he'd like to do games but I'm not letting him do much. LEAPSTER EXPLORER , A flash based system- take that Jobs-- it will cost $70 it arrives in stores JULY 15. Unfortunately these are REALLY EDUCATIONAL and I'm not sure how that is going to fly with kids-- will parents have to be the buyers -- I think so. HOWEVER they do have the NFL signed up for some stuff and that will work wonders-- a USB link allows you to download more aps including E-BOOKS! Now if you are swank enough to have an Apple Tablet you won't need this but the Amazon system is not good for kids... that opening there-- could lead to additional annoying e sales of children's books and could be big. Now here is a lesson on how you can pretty much make any chart look good if you need to make your case. Take a two year scan- from the May 09 area draw a trend line along the tops... it comes out around $8 or $9... now draw a line along the bottoms... well it's RIGHT THERE isn't it... with a tight stop in $3 1/2 or so you really can't lose with this trade. It would be a real nice stock to put away in a kids account and help him or her learn about investing. I see LEAPFROG STILL AS A $7 stock with periodic runs to $9. They recently barfed up an earnings report so we have all been given a chance to buy in cheap. The new item though is it any good? The screen appears too small to me and the graphics are cramped and unreadable (as usual) Still this is a big upgrade over Leapster 1 & 2 and with roll out a month away, lets follow the hype and reviews and see if we can't get this little stock back on it's little Leapster feet! Way to stick up for your peeps Madmaxer. Shame!~stoney
Leapfrog update not written by me. Leapfrog Enterprises (NYSE: LF) Whenever a company badly stumbles, it needs a heroic sustained turnaround effort to win back the hearts and minds of investors. Just such a turnaround appears to be taking shape for Leapfrog (NYSE: LF), which remains in the investor doghouse, but is getting healthier by the quarter. Earlier this week, we noted a stock-boosting upgrade from Needham & Co., which pushed shares of this educational toy maker up +18% on Monday. But the gains didn't hold, and the stock finished the week with a three-day losing streak. The Fise, Fall, and Rise Roughly a decade ago, Leapfrog was the hottest name in the children's toy space, thanks to a line of products called LeapPad, a tabular reading software platform that allowed children to read along syllable by syllable. The product was an instant smash, quickly selling millions of units. Word of mouth among moms proved at least as important as advertising. Sales grew +96% in 2001, even as the broader U.S. economy was mired in a post dot-com funk. By 2002, a broadened product line that targeted kids from pre-school to junior high helped push the sales needle yet higher, as a +69% revenue spike pushed annual sales above the $500 million mark. Even though sales would go on to rise another +27% in 2003, with earnings per share passing the $1 mark, a line of me-too products from Mattel's (NYSE: MAT) Fisher-Price division began to steal Leapfrog's thunder. Almost overnight, retailers stopped giving Leapfrog premium end-of-the-aisle shelf space, parents started to think of the company's products as passé, and the company entered into a long decline. From 2003 to 2009, sales fell by more than -40%, and shares, which were once richly-valued, lost more than -95% of their value. To regain the lost mojo, Leapfrog rolled out a wide range of new products, many of which were met with critical favor but consumer apathy. For example, in early 2005 the company introduced FLY, a pen-based computing platform aimed at "tweens" and young teenagers. Leapfrog executives hoped it would signal not only a new platform to replace older ones, but that it would finally crack the elusive market of older-aged kids who had been "graduating" from LeapFrog products. Despite strong retailer support, and a "Toy of The Year" award in February 2006, the FLY proved to be a disappointment. But even though Leapfrog would go on to post four straight unprofitable years through 2009, the seeds of a turnaround appeared in 2008 when the company introduced Tag, a pen-based computer system that can upload and download information. That summer, management also rolled out three new product lines, including an upgraded version of the original LeapPad. But the economic slowdown led subsequent quarters to disappoint, and shares moved below $2 in the spring of 2009. Christmas Cheer But just as Leapfrog moved even further from investors' radars, business finally started turning around this past holiday season. Those products released back in 2008 were slow to gain traction, but were finally finding appeal with consumers. In February 2010, the company announced that it had earned $0.46 a share in the fourth quarter of 2009, 50% higher than consensus estimates, on a +27% jump in sales. Sales rose an even more robust +42% in the first quarter of 2010, thanks to significant growth in the interactive toys segment. Instead of seeing another year of sales declines, analysts have started to talk about meaningful sales growth in 2010 and 2011. And after losing gobs of money during the past four years, Leapfrog now looks poised for profits in 2010, and far higher profits at that. Action to Take --> Earlier this week, Leapfrog's shares surged above $5 as analysts at Needham & Co. raised their rating to "strong buy," with an $8 price target after channel checks showed that second-quarter sales should also be quite robust. Shares have since drifted back below $5, but have a good chance of reaching that price target if this string of quarterly results can be sustained. Needham analyst says, "Our retail checks indicate that LFâs products enjoyed very strong sales in 2Q, with consumer takeaway up over 25% for key products. We expect LFâs shipments in 2Q rose more than 20%, and that the pre-tax loss will be substantially below last yearâs level. We continue to expect LF to post positive EPS and cash flow in 2010, and to enter 2011 with good growth prospects."
Their products continue to be stuck in 1999, and are extremely overpriced for what they offer. Young kids are *way* beyond that stuff, IMO they'd be better off turning themselves into an iPad software company (or etc). A kid walking around with a Leap* is a sure sign the parents are in the lower percentile of tech awareness/sophistication, and that's not a high-margin target market.
Hey Stoney, I do follow your trades on covestor. I respect your style, but I might suggest that until this liquidity crisis is over that you stay away from these small caps. They are not going to work until the market starts trending again. I think you have to jump on the wave in my opinion, the PWAV.
geeze Covester is linked to a near dead account. I never got the software talk back n forth thing working with them although in concept I like their idea. PWAV was a holding of mine until just recently! I was hot on them but is as you state a low priced stock. I'm working on a theory that after the next wash out (eminent?) there will be a flood into high dividend stocks and out of all these spec names... but it's just a theory at this point usually when earnings slow down these high growers are looked favorably upon.~stoney
>>>he he. I thought i was the one who made some leaps in cognitive thinking! Perhaps I myself am stuck in 1999 and that's part of the problem. >>> When things get sticky when i don't want to play NFL monopoly and my wife is cooking when the kid is cranky I grant you the first request if for Wii. 2nd would be some game site on a regular computer and the 3rd would be Leapster. From what I understand Apple has a product they do not push a light version of the tablet they have now; a small phone sized thing that allows you to download apps...and play the games without the phone. This will be the direction we ultimately go. But still those are games. Learning should not be thought of so negatively. Leapfrog does teach and in an interactive way. It does keep kids occupied for a bit. Those kid's parents may not be a high margin target market but ironically the kids are. And in this case parent and child are syncing on a low tech device that teaches. It seems to me this niche will not go away and LF may be ultimately a take out by a major toy player. ~stoney