10:06AM UDI defended at Thomas Weisel 30.13 +0.03:
Thomas Weisel considers yesterday's 10% sell-off in UDI to be an overreaction; using a normalized tax rate, Q4 EPS would have been approx $0.39, below consensus of $0.50, but firm says the lower operating income resulted from discretionary investment in R&D, not an operating issue, and they have increased confidence in the co's outlook. Firm also notes that UDI trades at only 12.3x their 2004 EPS est, which they believe is conservative, and they see potential upside from both multiple expansion and upward earnings revisions.
