$heff's $tation of $tocks & $olid DD

[rru2s]

$QCOR showing upswing before blowout earnings tomorrow:

A couple of reminders in case you want to be IN before the news:

QCOR’s earnings report is Wednesday, Feb. 22. TTM EPS will report a 40.5% increase, based on a 2/16/12 8K filing showing net income (before taxes) for Q ending 12/31/11 is $41M to $43M. New TTM EPS will be roughly 0.44 (= 42/33.7 x 0.35).

This will make a good play, especially after a StreetSweeper report back in January allowed shorts to drop QCOR’s PPS by 19%. However, the rather weak StreetSweeper report was effectively refuted in a rebuttal issued by QCOR.

Quarterly EPS data and estimated 12/31/11 earnings:

Period___________________12/10____3/11____6/11____9/11_____12/11
Diluted EPS________________0.10____0.17____0.21_____0.35_____0.44--(projected)
Net.Inc.B4_tax______________10.9___16.6____20.4_____33.7______42--(projected)
Net.Inc.after.Tx_____________6.42___11.2_____13.87____22.85____28.48--(projected)
ratio income B4/after tax____________________1.4704___1.4747___1.4747--(projected)
Sharecount________________65.39___65.37___65.46____66.02____66.02--(projected)
N.I./(EPS x Sh.Ct)___________0.9813__1.0099__1.0093___0.9889___0.9889--(projected)


92.9% institutional ownership (59M out of 64M sharecount):
source: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/qcor/institutional-holdings

54% upside (12 month analyst price target consensus $51.50)
source: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/qcor/analyst-research

Rated strong buy from 7 out of 7 analysts:
source: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/qcor/recommendations

Latest Short Interest: 10.6M (17% of float)
source: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/qcor/short-interest

$214M cash, and debt free
Source: 8K filed 2/16/12

15 million shares buybacks completed, 4.3M additional shares repurchase authorized
Source: 8K filed 2/16/12

Link to QCOR’s professional and effective rebuttal of a weak StreetSweeper short-selling report:

http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Questcor+%28QCOR%29+Issues+Response+to+StreetSweeper+ReportAllegations/7084149.html

Soon after the rebuttal was issued, StreetSweeper's short position decreased substantially; they covered when they saw the preliminary news of QCOR's upcoming earningst. However, not all shorts have covered, based on NASDAQ latest daily short interest.