Top Gas Utility Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Top Gas Utility Stocks To Invest In Right Now: iRobot Corp (IRBT)

iRobot Corporation (iRobot), incorporated in August 1990, designs and builds robots. The Company's home care robots perform time-consuming domestic chores while its government and industrial robots perform tasks, such as battlefield reconnaissance and bomb disposal, multi-purpose tasks for local police and first responders, and long-endurance oceanic missions. It sells its robots to consumers through a range of distribution channels, including chain stores and other national retailers, and through its on-line store, and to the United States military and other government agencies globally. It designs and builds robots for the consumer and government and industrial markets. It sells its products through distinct sales channels to the consumer and government and industrial markets. In the United States and Canada, it sells its consumer products through a network of national retailers. As of December 31, 2011, this network consisted of more than 30 retailers, which often sel l either one or some combination of its products. Its smaller domestic retail operations are supported by distributors to whom it sells product directly. It sells its government and industrial products directly to end users and indirectly through prime contractors and distributors. During the year ended December 31, 2011, sales to non-the United States customers accounted for 45.5% of total revenue.

Consumer Products

The Company sells various products, which are designed for use in and around the home. Its consumer products are focused on both indoor and outdoor cleaning applications. It offers multiple Roomba floor vacuuming robots and Scooba floor washing robots. Its Roomba robot's compact disc shape allows it to clean under beds and other furniture, resulting in cleaner floors. In addition, it cleans automatically upon the push of a ! button. Its Scooba robot's cleaning process allows the robot to simultaneously sweep, wash, scrub and dry hard floors, all at the touch of a button. Its Verro Pool Cleani! ng Robot is used to clean a residential pool and removes debris as small as two microns from the pool floor, walls and stairs. Verro is brought to market under the iRobot brand through a relationship with the Aqua Products Group companies, including AquaJet LLC and Aquatron, Inc., which developed the pool cleaning robots.

The Company's Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot cleans an entire stretch of gutter. The Looj also features a detachable handle that doubles as a wireless remote control, providing control of the robot while cleaning.

Government and Industrial Products

In government and industrial product markets, the Company offers both ground and maritime unmanned vehicles. Its tactical ground robots include the combat-tested 510 PackBot line of small, unmanned ground robots, the 310 small unmanned ground vehicle (SUGV) and XM1216 SUGV (Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle) multi-purpose ground robots, the 110 FirstLook small, light, throwable robot, and the 710 Warrior multi-purpose robot capable of carrying heavy payloads. The PackBot, SUGV, FirstLook, and Warrior robot series make up a family of robots using many common platform components and offer its flipper technology, which enables robots to climb stairs, navigate rubble, and penetrate inaccessible areas. These robots keep war fighters and public safety officials out of harm's way and are designed for performing search, reconnaissance, mapping, bomb disposal and other dangerous missions. As of December 31, 2011, more than 4,500 robots had been delivered to military and civil defense forces globally. Its Aware 2 software is incorporated into the 510 PackBot chassis and operator control unit. As a result, PackBot can support multiple configurations and payloads with the same chassis and operator control unit, providing customers with a sin! gle robot! capable of performing multiple missions.

Contract Research and Development Projects

< p>The Company is involved in several contract development pr! ojects wi! th the United States governmental agencies and departments. The durations of these projects range from a few months to several years. These projects are usually funded as either cost-plus, firm fixed price, or time and materials contracts. In a cost-plus contract, it is allowed to recover its actual costs plus a fixed fee. Under a firm fixed price contract, it receives a fixed amount upon satisfying contractually defined deliverables. On its time and materials contracts, it recovers a specific amount per hour worked based on a bill rate schedule, plus the cost of direct materials, subcontracts, and other non-labor costs, including an agreed-upon mark-up.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Finally and as for aggressive accounting, I should also note that I wrote about the stock after its last earnings report (see: Small Cap Robotics Stock iRobot Corporation (IRBT): A Buy After an Earnings Dip? ADEP & ROBO) where I mentioned post earnings CEO interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg (aggressive accounting was not covered) that would seem to cast doubt on another statement: "Spruce Point Believes IRBT Is No Longer A Robotic Innovator."

• [By Roberto Pedone]

   

  Another potential earnings short-squeeze trade idea is iRobot (IRBT), which designs, develops and markets robots for consumer, defense and security, telemedicine and video collaboration markets worldwide. iRobot is set to release its numbers on Tuesday after the market close. Wall Street analysts, on average, expect the company to report revenue $112.26 million on earnings of 16 cents per share.

   

   

  The current short interest as a percentage of the float for iRobot is extremely high at 26.1%. That means that out of the 27.97 million shares in the tradable float, 7.24 ! million s! hares are sold short by the bears. The bears have also been increasing their bets from the last reporting period by 19.2%, or by about 1.16 million shares. If the bears get caught pressing their bets into a bullish quarter, then shares of IRBT could easily jump sharply higher post-earnings as the shorts rush to cover some of their bets.

   

  From a technical perspective, IRBT is currently trending above its 200-day moving average and just below its 50-day moving average, which is neutral trendwise. This stock has been downtrending over the last month and change, with shares moving lower from its high of $48.36 to its recent low of $35.50 a share. During that move, shares of IRBT have been making mostly lower highs and lower lows, which is bearish technical price action. That said, shares of IRBT have started to bounce off that $35.50 low and its moving back above its 200-day moving average. That move is starting to push shares of IRBT within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade post-earnings.

   

  If you're in the bull camp on IRBT, then I would wait until after its report and look for long-biased trades if this stock manages to break out back above its 50-day moving average of $41.58 a share with high volume. Look for volume on that move that hits near or above its three-month average action of 1.13 m

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-gas-utility-stocks-to-invest-in-right-now.html