Two Struggling Techs: 1 Buy, 1 Hold

Article Excerpt

MDS INC. $22 (Toronto symbol MDS; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 122.5 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; SI Rating: Average) operates in three medical -related fields: contract drug research, analytical devices and medical isotopes. The company now spends about 2% of its revenue on research, down from 3% a few years ago. That’s because it sold the research-intensive parts of its business in the past few years, such as protein analysis, to focus on its less risky operations. As part of this plan, it recently paid $624 million for California-based Molecular Devices Corp. (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). This business makes devices and software that speed up drug research. It nicely complements MDS’s other analytical products. In its second fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2007, revenue at MDS rose 12.8%, to $273 million from $242 million a year earlier. The latest quarterly revenue includes $29 million from Molecular Devices. Restructuring and other charges expanded losses…