History/Profile,

Overview:

Dawson Geophysical, Inc is a leading provider of onshore seismic data in 48 states of US. Their business consists of seismic data acquisition and processing to form the overall picture of earth’s subsurface. This method involves the recording of reflected acoustic and sonic waves. They introduce acoustic energy into the ground with vibration machines and then record the reflection of this energy with their special recording devices. These devices are called geophones. Usually there is placed 6 devices on the ground which are connected with each other and form a channel. The company uses both 2-D and 3-D seismic techniques. The latter method helps to get the more precise images and improved quality data. The generated data is mostly used by oil and gas companies. The data helps them to identify the most efficient location and decrease oil and natural gas finding costs.

Strategy:

1. Attracting experienced and skilled personnel
2. Maintaining the focus on their domestic operations.
3. Continuing to operate in a conservative financial discipline.
4. Upgrading their capabilities to advance is geophysical technologies
5. Acquiring new equipment to expand the recording capacity channel.

Competition:

The acquiring and processing seismic data for oil and gas companies is a highly competitive industry in United States. Among Dawson’s competitors are relatively small and large companies with substantially greater financial resources available. Here is the list of competitors:
CGG Veritas
Petroleum Geo-Services ASA
Geokinetics Inc
Global Geophysical Services,
Tidelands Geophysical Company

The Financials, Income Statement,

The Bullish:

Click the chart to see it in the full resolution

Introduction:

In this short article, completely new topic will be covered: AAPL technical analysis. There were no articles in my blog where technical analysis was used.   “Why did you decide to analyze Apple Computer, Inc” - you will ask. My answer is: according to my research many traders and investors, who visit my blog are very interested in Apple Computer, Inc, its future, its Return on Invested Capital, WACC, products, sustainable competitive advantages and more. That’s why I decided to analyze AAPL in this article. Moreover, technical analysis is very popular and is highly valued among the majority of traders and thus, it really works.

Analysis:

The chart period is 3 months, bars are daily. Used indicators: RSI (14-day), Fibonacci retracements.

As we can see from the chart, the downtrend ended in 08/04/2008.  At the same time the RSI indicator increased. To be more exact, it is convergence or positive divergence. That was a clear bullish sing. It resulted with 9-day uptrend which lasted since 08/05/2008 until 08/14/2008. During this period of time stock price increased by 15.27% (155.42$ (5th of August - Open) - 179.32$ (14th of August - Close)). This strong bullish trend ended in the 08/15/2008. During this day the price decreased by 1.84% from 179.04$ to 175.74$. It is really obvious, because the RSI indicator shows that AAPL is overbought (current RSI level equals to 77.14). I suppose that it is the beginning of a bearish trend, and the current price will retrace to Fibonacci 38.2% level, which equals to 169.89$. The majority of the trends retraces to 38.2% level. In this case it will retrace by 3.33% from Friday close price (175.74$). I think, that it will take AAPL 2-3 days to completely retrace and then continue the bullish trend.

This article is dedicated to another famous and fast-growing Chinese company (like my two previous stock research articles – SOHU.com. I researched it carefully several times, even wanted to buy it, but however I haven’t ever done it and I have been watching the company growing for almost a year, if I’m not mistaken. Moreover, I think that Chinese dotcoms have great future and their growth won’t be the bubble. The other reasons (demographic) for being bullish on SOHU.com you can read in my article about Baidu.com

History/Profile,

The Overview:

SOHU.com is one of the premier Internet media companies on China, which provides the wide range of services, including daily source of information, entertainment and communication. SOHU.com web properties are shown below:

www.sohu.com – leading mass media portal
www.sogou.com – interactive search engine
www.17173.com – games info portal
www.focus.cn – real estate website
www.chinaren.com – online alumni club
www.go2map.com – online mapping
www.goodfeel.com.cn – wireless services provider

The History:

The company was incorporated in Delaware in August, 1996 as Internet Technologies China, Inc.They launched their first website itc.com.cn in January 1997. During this year they developed the SOHU online directory and search engine. SOHU also offers online gaming and wireless services. In February 1998 they changed itc.com.cn domain name to www.sohu.com and in September 1999 renamed their company name to SOHU.com, Inc. In October 2000 they acquired ChinaRen, the leading youth online community website in China. In November 2003 they acquired the Kylie Enterprises Limited, the owner of 17173.com. During the same year they acquired the All Honest International limited , the owner of Focus.cn. In May 2004 they acquired Marvel hero Limited and Goodfeel, they leading provider of wireless services In may 2005 they acquired Go2Map, Inc. In November 2006 they acquired 21 East HK and its subsidiary 21 East Beijing.

Competition:

Chinese Internet market is relatively new and is rapidly growing. However, there are many companies that distribute online content there. SOHU.COM faces strong competition from both domestic and international internet companies in the field of brand advertising, content, community tools, search engines, web directories, online games and wireless services. Their competitors may have advantages over them in the terms of:

• Greater financial and technical resources
• More developed sales and marketing networks
• Better access to original content and information
• Greater global brand recognition

SOHU.com advantages:

• Websites quality
• Talented staff
• Product quality
• Price
• Brand recognition

The Financials, Income Statement,

The Bullish