Midweek Turnarounds: iRobot and EMC Corp.

After hitting near 52-week lows, EMC Corporation  (Public, NYSE:EMC) and iRobot Corporation  (Public, NASDAQ:IRBT) are both moving up close to 2% today.  These are two stocks that the Masters want you to look at, and if you missed our prior analysis, it's time to have another look.

On April 2nd I wrote iRobot Corp. shares are undervalued and over the weekend put out EMC Corp: $1 away from a 52-week low, now what?  I took a small position in both stocks yesterday, it was just too good to pass up.

Here are the respective 3 Month Charts:

iRobot is a great company and at this point, is a sit and wait story until some good news comes out that helps move the stock.  Nothing has happened this week but some buying interest. There's value in IRBT, and I would recommend reading their iRobot Corporation F4Q07 (Qtr End 12/31/07) Earnings Call Transcript. Their technology, patents, and future growth all for a stock that trades under $20 is worth your attention.

More than 2.5 million iRobot Home Robots have been sold worldwide and over 1,200 iRobot PackBot Tactical Mobile Robots have been deployed worldwide, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan. These robots have performed tens of thousands of missions  and are credited with saving scores of soldiers’ lives. iRobot has won numerous awards for innovation and design, how's that for feel good investing?

EMC Corp. on the other hand is really going to float around until it's earnings call at the end of the month. EMC yesterday announced that it was to buy rival Iomega for $213 million, or $3.85 per share - a fair chunk of change, and a surprising valuation of a company that has been floundering for quite a while.

Today Robert W Baird maintained their "outperform" rating on EMC Corporation (EMC) but lowered their target price from $25 to $20.

In a research note published yesterday, the analysts mention that the company has acquired Iomega, a retail provider of external storage devices, for $213 million in cash. The acquisition is unlikely to have a significant impact on EMC’s 2008 results, the analysts say. The downward revision in the target price reflects the difficult IT spending scenario, Robert W Baird adds.

EMC still owns 86% of VMware and how could you forget that IPO last year? Bottom line Masters, if there's hope for VMware, there's hope for EMC.  EMC's Q1 2008 Earnings call is on April 23rd, should the positive momentum continue for either or both companies, the stock will finally return from the dead.
 

Disclaimer: The Author is Long EMC and IRBT as of 4/9/2008.