Wall Street to Main Street: News, Views and Commentary: April 5, 2006

Its Wednesday April 5, 2006, the first quarter of the year has ended and institutions have been shifting their funds around because its that time of the year. Some of the big movers are in the financial industry such as Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), since January of this year the stock has made tremendous movement from the $127.00 range to where it closed on Tuesday at $161.00. This is a company that is still trading about 30 to 40 points below where its potential is, bare in mind that Investment Banking, mergers and acquisitions are in full swing, and this is where they make their big money. Another company is Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) they have jumped from the $128.00 range in January to $147.13 where it closed on Tuesday, for the same reason as Goldman Sachs and the stock still has legs to make further movement.

Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) is nothing to sneeze at either as the company has seen upside movement going from $67.95 in early January to where it closed on Tuesday at $80.33. So this is an industry that investors may want to continue to look at. One company that has not faired as well is Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) that moved 6 points in the past three months.

Now to a stock that we have mentioned several times on Wall Street to Main Street , back when it was at $25.00 and that is Shuffle Master (NASDAQ: SHFL), over the past few weeks the stock has climbed from the $25.00 range to the $35.00 range breaking its 52 week high , this is amidst various downgrades and doubts. Im not going to go into the history of Shuffle Master, when it when it went public and traded in the single digits, but I am going to tell you that the company has the potential to trade higher as United States based casinos start to expand in Asia. This will continue to be a big boost for the companys products such as their well known card shufflers and their poker, blackjack, baccarat and pai gow poker-based table games. The CEO Mark Yoseloff is guiding the company in the right direction and has been doing a great job, so investors may want to take a look at Shuffle Master.

Internet security is a big issue and has been for some time now, companies like Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) have been coming up with solutions to protect internet users. One company that specializes in network security solutions for small to mid size businesses is SonicWall (NASDAQ: SNWL), the companys Internet security infrastructure products provide secure Internet access to both wired and wireless broadband customers. Now the stock has come down from $8.74 where it was back in January 2006 and went as low at $6.52 in February, slowly but surely the stock has creeped up back to $7.71, where it closed yesterday. Now the company has focused on only small to mid-size businesses to date, but with their recent acquisition of Mailfrontier may have the company eyeing the home network market. This is a wide open market and with more people setting up home networks this could give SonicWall tremendous growth potential. Bare in mind that chances are that more than one member of the family uses the Internet, so putting in a wireless home network becomes the simple solution. But security has been an issue and we think that SonicWall has a solution for the home network market. So with a 52 week low of $4.93 and a 52 week high of $8.82 you may want to pick your entry point.

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) has joined the patent infringement-suing spree as they have filed a lawsuit against Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) for patent infringement. They are petitioning a Northern California court to shut down Blockbusters online rental service and award Netflix damages. Apparently Netflix was granted a patent in regards to the how customers rent DVDs from Netflix and if you look at it, Blockbuster is trying to do the same thing. With Carl Icahn in the picture some deal may be struck that could aid the struggling Blockbuster that is trading at $3.90 a far cry from their glory days when the company was run properly.

Here are three other companies that you should know about they are Informatica (NASDAQ: INFA) the stock is close to its 52 week high of $17.07.

Pharmacopeia Drug Discovery (NASDAQ: PCOP) is trying to create a new base in the $5.25 to $5.50 range, the 52 week high is $6.31 and the stock is thinly traded. So the problem here has been a lack of interest from the financial community, well the CEO Dr. Leslie Browne is set to present in front of a few financial conferences over the course of April, which may help get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Sigmatel (NASDAQ: SGTL), the stock has slid from a 52 week high of $36.49 to where it closed on Tuesday $8.91. They are involved in the multimedia semiconductor industry, they recently slapped a lawsuit on the Korean company Telechips for patent infringement. Now this is a stock that has been overlooked and oversold, the focus has been on Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) in that industry, but now investors need to look at Sigmatel. Because in the single digit range the stock is a bargain. Technology is advancing rapidly so the multimedia semiconductor market is wide open even though the major players make it seem not to be so.

We cannot stress enough that investors need to do their due diligence, call the companies, get the information, consult with your investment advisor and if you do not have one consider getting one. Put the same time into investigating these companies as you do when you go to purchase a new television, its only for your protection.

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