The Bot Brief

"There is no force on earth more powerful than an idea whose time has come."     

- Victor Hugo

Bots in the News

The Bot Index appreciated 2.42% last week in comparison with the S & P 500’s 1.85% gain. The Index was strengthened through three of the thirty holdings that improved by double digits. Leading the gainers was iRobot, whose fate since the proposed merger with Amazon collapsed, drew the stock from over $41 to the mid $7s in just five months. Standing alone, however, the company’s recent earnings were better than was expected by Wall Street. The stock gained 19% after reporting a first-quarter 2024 adjusted loss of $1.53 per share, which was better than consensus estimates of a loss of $2.03. The reported figure compares favorably with the year-ago quarter’s net loss of $1.67. The management indicated that unit sales were actually ahead of last year’s pace, however, pricing per robot was reduced to prompt those sales.

Immersion Corp. announced a blow-out first quarter with revenues of $43.8 million, an increase from $7.1 million in Q1 2023, and well above estimates of $24.94 million. Furthermore, non-GAAP earnings came in at $0.63 per diluted share, showing an increase from $9.5 million or $0.29 per diluted share in the first quarter. While management cautioned that the quarter’s financial picture would likely not be as robust in the coming year, investors took heart the improvement in the balance sheet cash to $179 million, an $18.7 million improvement and the instatement of a dividend of 4.5 cents, giving the company a yield of 2.19%. All this on a company with a PE of 7.9x.

The final double-digit participant in the Bot Index was the defense manufacturer AeroVironment. The company has been recently riding a crest of performance due to its leadership in drone warfare. The latest move, a gain of 10.49%, came following the report that the company would receive the first award from the U.S. Department of Defense’s new billion-dollar Replicator initiative for  AeroVironment’s loitering drone – Switchblade 600. The Switchblade 600 is a man-portable, extended-range loitering munition system equipped with an anti-armor warhead for engaging larger, hardened targets at greater distances. The smaller drone joins a growing variety of combat drones that have been so widely used in the Ukraine-Russia and Israel -Hamas conflicts.

AeroVironment’s stock has climbed from $122 to over $186 since the beginning of the year. This prompted Investor’s Business Daily to write about the company this week with the headline, “This AI Stock Is Nearing A Buy Point, Thanks To Uncle Sam.”

The worst performance within the Bot Index this week was turned in by NIO Inc., the Chinese EV maker. In contrast to its place as the prior week’s leading gainer, NIO slipped nearly 9%. Along with Tesla (-7.03%), the EV industry is becoming beset with problems ranging from a lack of consumer interest to charging station concerns which have caused some recent labor layoffs.

Member: American Economic Association, Society of Professional Journalists, United States Press Association. Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts, Robotic Industries Association (now A3 Automation), Member IEEE.

The Bot Brief is a weekly newsletter designed for economists, investment specialists, journalists, and academicians. It receives no remuneration from any companies that may from time to time be featured in the brief and its commentaries, analysis, opinions, and research represent the subjective view of Balcones Investment Research, LLC. Due to the complex and rapidly changing nature of the subject matter, the company makes no assurances as to the absolute accuracy of the material presented.