On August 18th the time and sales information on the trading of BPTR had an interesting anomoly. There was one trade, which printed at about 10:30 EST, for 1,830,000 shares at $.84.

Without going back into history, I am willing to guess this is the largest single trade in the history of BPTR. The event brought some inquiries from members - we all want to know what this was all about.

I made some calls to fund managers who I know are involved in the stock and couldn’t find out any facts.  However, I did hear a rumor. Like all rumors you have to take it a face value and assume it might be true or completely false.

I share this with you so long as you understand it might not be factual and might not represent any reason to purchase the stock.

I heard the following- the trade was the purchase of a block of shares remaining from a private placement BPTR did two years ago. At the time, the shares were priced at $.30, since the company was nearly bankrupt the funds allowed the turn around to take place.

The majority of the shares which were for sale from the private placement have already been absorbed by the market.

I have heard a rumor that the 1.83 million share trade was a sale of the last of the $.30 stock to a fund that wants a large position in the company, and intends to make more open market purchases.

This may be totally false, and in my view doesn’t represent a reason to run out and buy the stock. You should buy the stock if you like the company first. An expanded audience of institutional investors would be just what the doctor ordered in this situation. The large trade enhances the possibitity of that occurence.

For what it’s worth, the longer term chart of BPTR is quite interesting. This is a weekly chart going back to mid ’03.

On a longer term basis, it is interesting to note that the lows continue the pattern of getting higher. The highs got a little lower, but on a shallower slope.

The stock has made great runs in the Fall each of the last two years. This year, I believe the stock has to break above the old $1.20 high to have any chance of going on to higher highs.

This is the time of the year for this stock. It is 2 for 2 over the past 2 years. Perhaps it will be different this year. Time will tell. With potential massive new contracts in the pipeline, it could get interesting if it falls BPTR’s way.

Aegis Assessments was in the news this morning. They disclosed an event that could foreshadow a rebound of enthusiasm for this long beleagured stock.

According to this morning’s press release, the LAPD has signed on to purchase “ multiple SafetyNet(TM) RadioBridges(TM) for use in an interoperable communications program funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the greater Los Angeles area. “

Click here to see a picture of their Radio Bridge. It is an elegant solution to the pervasive problem of first responder interoperability at an emergency. In plain English, when the police, fire department, and paramedics all show up at an emergency site, they can’t talk to each other.

This product is a simple solution to a complex problem. While other companies are working on billion dollar infrastructure overhauls and multi million dollar command vehicles, AGSI has come up with this simple solution.

Each first responder at a site provides one hand set and everyone’s talking to each other for about $10,000.

Like so many homeland security technology providers, the orders have been slow in coming and the adoption process is taking a year past early estimates.

Hence, landing the LAPD, one of the largest and most progressive police forces on planet earth, could forewarn of a domino effect of orders, which is exactly what the doctor ordered for this fledgling company.

They only need to sell about 1,000 units annually to have a valuable business, and the LAPD could be the start of those kinds of numbers.

The chart is interesting. At first glance you simply see a stock that made a new low this week.

I’ve included the volume bars because they are worth noting. The volume has been steadily climbing since mid July as the stock has dropped. This suggest a kind of climatic sell off.

Perhaps the sellers are running out of stock and we are poised to rebound. I would simply like to see more orders- a lot more. The LAPD purchase order might just cause a cascade of PO’s. 

GEPT was out with news this morning of a negative nature. The company announced it has been unable to come to terms with acquisition target Astrophysics. According to the release, the parties have “ reached an impasse ” in their negotiations.

In my view, the Astrophysics acquisition would have been one of the key drivers in the the future growth of GEPT. I believe this is a major negative event for the company, and will likely lead to erosion in the price of the stock.

This takes GEPT completely out of the rapidly growing baggage and cargo screening market.

If you still own this stock from my June and July editions in the $3 range, and y0u didn’t follow my suggestion of selling some or all of your stock in the $7 range, act before it is too late.

If memory serves, in previous writings I suggested waiting until the stock traded into the $4.50 before buying. I now feel the stock could easily come back and fill the gap created when the company received notoriety from Jim Cramer on his Mad Money show on CNBC.

Those who own this stock from the June and July time frame should send Cramer a thank you note. If you are still holding, you have been warned. Once the big MO players start selling this stock, it will drop as quickly as it rose.

Of course, I could be wrong. It might hang in there. However, the market is overdue for a correction, and so is GEPT.

I still like the company longer term, and will come back with some ideas on a good entry level pending how it trades.

As always, you comment and questions are welcome. 

Today’s edition on NWKI, entitled “NetWork Installation: Market Likes June Results” contained an error which needs to be corrected.

I inadvertently stated “Chairman Michael Novielli has pegged a $10 million annual run rate as a target by year’s end.”

As one loyal reader pointed out, Mr. Novielli is actually shooting for the $8 million annual run rate level by year’s end. He stated in my January 28, 2005 interview:

“Michael Novielli: Well as you mentioned with any growth company that’s experiencing a high growth - a high rate of growth there’s a need to invest in expanding your infrastructure in support of your sales organization. In doing so your fixed costs will typically outpace gross profit margins until you achieve a critical mass and we believe that point for us to be about 8 million in sales which would put us into the fourth quarter of this year.”

The full text of the interview is available in the SEC filings as an 8-k.

As usual, comments and questions are welcome.

As you can see from the chart, HDY is rebounding nicely after yesterday’s high volume sell off from the close on Thursday.

The AMEX decided to halt the stock for the entire day on Friday to allow the company time to get the news out, and their response to the events.

Those close to the company believe the problem in Guinea can be rectified in short order. I am not quite as trusting. My experience has been that anything political, international, or corrupt in nature takes a long time to work it’s way out. Sometimes outcomes can be favorable, sometimes not.

Just as I predicted in last Thursday’s BLOG, the stock made it’s low on the first trading day after the news came out. Personally, I had a limit order in to buy at $.50 if the stock had traded that low. It did not.

Now the stock is rebounding and trying to attain the $1.40 level. Coincidentally, this is almost the exact level at which we published our first edition on the company. It will be 2 years ago October.

The  believers now have the upper hand. However, if the issue is not resolved in short order, as time goes on the believers will become impatient and the stock will start grinding down.

If you are going to give up on this idea, now would probably be the time to offload your position.

If you want to hang in there- good luck. I hope it does go favorably.

I will probably sell a percentage of our company’s holdings and keep a little in case HDY is able to work out the problem with the Guinea government.

In the interim, sources close to the company tell me all is not lost, and a quick resolution could be in the offing.

You can call Rob Gleckman at 800 277 9081 for more information. He is very close to the company, and can give you up to the minute information.

HESG broke away nicely to the upside this morning on huge volume. The stock opened for trading at $.98, up from Friday’s close of $.92.

As I post this BLOG, the stock has traded over 600,000 shares at is printing in the $1.04 range.

If you are a buyer right now, you might want to be prepared for the possibility the stock might come back and fill this morning’s gap.

A Fibonacci retracement of this very short term move of 61.8% would put the stock at $.93. That would be the ideal entry level for short term traders.

However, the way the stock is behaving, there is better than 50/50 chance you won’t get that opportunity this week.

If you want to own the stock to see where their two new blockbuster products take this company, it doesn’t matter if you own it at $.94 or $1.04. It’s either going back to the $1.51 high, or it’s not.

I strongly recommend you go to the edition and order the free sample of SUGR. Decide for yourself if this product has a future.

As I mentioned in the weekend edition, more in future editions on sales projections and profit margins for Sequestrol and SUGR.