Seeking Alpha
Latest figures from Nasdaq show that institutions now own nearly 61% of the LookSmart's (LOOK) total shares issued. Looksmart's market cap is currently $110.13M, and with Friday's close of $4.80, the total number of shares issued in the company is 22,943,750. Institutions now "own" 13,885,313 of these.

Yahoo Finance show that Major Direct Holders hold some 7,441,139 between them and there hasn't been a SELL from them, since late December, 2005. In fact, they have actually "bought" in recent times.

And the above Institutions are still attempting to "buy all they can", as is obvious with a close watch of the course of sales, on Level 2 on a daily basis. Every "trick in the book" has/is being employed (by the MM's), to get whatever they can. ('shorting to themselves', said to be highly illegal, is obvious. Covering from one account to another is also obvious). And "shorts" are recorded as being down to just 280,635 shares; this figure may be even lower by now. Shorts are covering, if they are able.

Recent daily volume (in the last six days) has slowed to a shade over 40,000 per day and a lot of that is simply MM's pushing "them" back and forth from one account to another, moving the SP "up and down" with irrational "sharp" moves (with the latter type) designed to set off the odd trailing 'stop-loss' that can cause the unsuspecting to suddenly part with their shares.

If those "shorts" (280,635 shares) are genuine (the real McCoy type), they will be in trouble, IMHO. Just look at the above numbers a little closer. Institutions and Major Holders have (between them) 21,326,452. Add to this the 800,000 shares that trade on the ASX in OZ. And they are held pretty "tight" too of late, with daily trades down to a 'trickle'.

So when you take the combined (21,326,452 + 800,000) 22,126,452 from the total amount of issued shares (22,943,750) you have only 817,298 supposedly "free" shares, available to trade daily, that are held by ordinary shareholders. But they are NOT selling! So, with reasonable good news expected soon (including Looksmart's Q4 Report) those 280,635 shares "short" may very well be in a spot of bother.

Disclosure: Author is long LOOK.

Print this article with comments

This article has 4 comments:

  •  
    And it's worth noting that the Insto holdings are now holding up, to near on 62% or, 14,207,443 shares (of the 22,943,750 issued), as they continue to accumulate.

    www.nasdaq.com/asp/Hol...;selected=LOOK&amp...

    Cheers!
    2007 Feb 03 05:38 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    And a further "update" for those who may be interested in the theme of this thread. Cheers!

    Looksmart has an approx 22,942,387 shares on it's register. Shares that have been issued fully, as of friday. I know of (includes myself) at least, another 200,000 shares (here and in the US) that can be considered as "tightly held". (I personally know of, again including myself, an approx 75,000 of that above estimated total, that are held here over here on the ASX)

    The following is my reply to a post on one of the boards over in OZ:



    Looksmart LOK - Insto's 14,349,745 - Major Holders 7,441,139 - Total issued = 22.94M

    www.nasdaq.com/asp/Hol...;selected=LOOK&amp...

    The continually growing total of shares being added daily to the already monstrous Institutional holdings, really needs no further 'drum beating' on this thread ........ surely?

    LOOK/LOK
    LookSmart, Ltd. NASDAQ-GM
    Ownership Summary Description

    INSTITUTIONAL
    Total Number of Holders 43
    % of Shares Outstanding 62.55%
    Total Shares Held 14,349,745
    Total Value of Holdings $70,313,751
    Net Activity 2,117,458

    Top 5 Holders Shares Held
    SIDUS INVESTMEN... 2,269,492
    S SQUARED TECHN... 2,172,140
    PRICE T ROWE AS... 1,266,000
    BARCLAYS GLOBAL... 1,115,915
    CROSSLINK CAPIT... 1,025,912

    INSIDER TRADES
    Last 3 Mo. Last 12 Mo.
    Number of Insider Trades 4 10
    Number of Buys 4 10
    Number of Sells 0 0
    Net Activity +3,043 ......... +24,143

    Last 5 Trades Shares Traded - finance.yahoo.com/q/mh...
    BERRY YOLANDA L... 500
    GIAMALIS STACEY 262
    SCHOEN MICHAEL 281
    WRIGHT TIMOTHY 2,000

    So they (Insto's) now own some $70,313,751 (14,349,745 shares) and Major Holders own (source, Yahoo) 7,441,139 shares or, a current value (@ the overnight close of $4.86cps) of $36,164,183. And Insiders have bought over 24,000 shares in the past 12 months with NO sells.

    Hellooooo ???

    (And thinking of LOOK/LOK with it's Q4 Report on 15th of Feb. - Whatever happens next thurs/friday is completely out of our hands. What would anyone reckon those Insto's will be thinking of doing?)
    ______________________...

    Any comments on the above, are most welcomed. TIA

    CHEERS!

    :)
    RB
    2007 Feb 10 02:00 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Looksmart - "How Smart Is LookSmart"?

    How Smart Is LookSmart?

    Or, rather, how smart is the writer of a blog, 24/7 Wall St one could be justified in asking?

    Jon C. Ogg describes himself as the following:

    About Me

    Jon Ogg has been a News Analyst for nearly 10 years and also has experience as a broker, portfolio manager & investment advisor. He has been sourced for articles in CBS Marketwatch, E*Trade, TradeTheNews, FlyOnTheWall, Pristine, Evolution Trading, Knova Trading, Hammerstone, CNet.com, Seeking Alpha, Google Finance & other sites. Prior to 24/7 Wall St. LLC he formed News Contrast and was the founder of a service for active traders called TradeTheNews (he sold in 2003), and built up a news desk that was merged up into E*Trade. He worked in Copenhagen, Denmark as a portfolio manager for European clients trading US equities and ran the event-driven trading team there. He has been a financial advisor & advised start-up and emerging stage companies, and started his career as a licensed broker selling fixed income to some of the largest investment managers in the US. He received a B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Houston (1992). Mr. Ogg does not hold any positions in any stocks he writes about. Email: jonogg@gmail.com

    And the same Jon C. Ogg signed off on his thoughts (on his blog today) with what I believe to be, one of the poorest prepared assaults on a Co, I have come across for some time now. Jon, (as was pointed out by "tiomike_ca" in the private Looksmart Google Group today) has even (possibly) "made mention" of the group in his blog. Don't miss it! (link below)

    .... He says. (Whatever that IS suppose to mean?)

    ... Unless he means the over 64% share "ownership" by the Insto's, possibly?

    www.247wallst.com/2007...

    :)

    RB
    Just ....."How much can a koala bear"?
    2007 Feb 16 03:15 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Whoops!

    (Part missed!! - Can be 'edited' in, maybe?)

    "So there are obviously many hopes they'll get back to some sort of profitability soon, but they are probably going to have to rely on the cult stock followers from here rather than the turnaround investors." .... He says. (Whatever that IS suppose to mean?)

    :)
    RB
    2007 Feb 16 03:18 AM | Link | Reply