Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Acusphere, Inc., KeyCorp, Electroglas, Inc., Amkor Technology, Inc. and Broadcom Corp

Business Wire, Oct 15, 2008

CHICAGO -- Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Acusphere, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACUS), KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY), Electroglas, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGLS), Amkor Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMKR) and Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

Acusphere High Risk, High Reward

Acusphere, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: ACUS) Imagify is an investigational new drug developed to assess perfusion using ultrasound for the detection of coronary artery disease. Imagify is a billion-dollar product if approved. However, an abysmal stock price and a desperate need for cash have backed management somewhat into a corner. Acusphere remains a highly speculative play. We view the name as a biotech call option.

Acusphere will need to raise cash before the U.S. PDUFA date of February 28, 2009. This will come from either signing a U.S. partnership or dilutive stock offering. The FDA has scheduled an advisory panel meeting to discuss and review Imagify on December 10. We view this as very good news for Acusphere as it not only improves the odds of approval, but also moves forward a significant catalyst for the shares and could allow management to secure much need financing before the need to dilute shareholders with a big offering or split the stock.

KeyCorp a Sell Ahead of Earnings

Cleveland-based KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY), a bank-oriented financial service company, provides commercial and retail banking, commercial leasing, investment management, consumer finance, as well as investment banking products to individual, corporate, and institutional clients throughout the United States and, for certain businesses, internationally.

Though the company has taken steps to reduce its exposure to the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) residential properties segment, we anticipate higher losses in CRE portfolio in the coming quarters, particularly in view of its sizeable exposure to the difficult markets of California and Florida.

Electroglas Better Down the Road

Electroglas (Nasdaq: EGLS) is an OEM [original equipment manufacturer] of wafer prober and wafer test-handling systems. While the long-term outlook in probers for EGLS is positive, the short-term cash burn is concerning.

The firm recently signed new volume purchase agreements with Amkor (Nasdaq: AMKR) and Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM). Management has embarked on a new aggressive plan to lower breakeven to $14-$15 million (from $18-$19 million). We continue to rate shares of EGLS a Hold.

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