WESTON, Fla., Jan. 13, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Wall Street News Alert's "stocks to watch" this morning are: Consumer Direct of America (OTCBB:CDIT), Acacia Technologies Group (Nasdaq:ACTG), Rapidtron Inc. (OTCBB:RPDT) and USA Technologies Inc. (OTCBB:USTT).
Aggressive investors need to be watching Consumer Direct of America (OTCBB:CDIT) this morning! Yesterday after the markets closed, the company issued a press release announcing that it has consummated an agreement with Consulting Services LLC of Atlanta to acquire the operating assets of the company including its mortgage banking operations and direct mail center!
This is big news for investors! According to the press release, the agreement gives Consumer Direct of America a fully functional mortgage banking operation and approximately 120 loans per month in debt consolidation loan business. In addition, Consumer Direct acquired approximately $1 million in assets including a direct mail center facility of approximately 10,000 square feet. The mortgage bank allows Consumer Direct to "bank" rather than "broker" its mortgage loans, thus adding an additional revenue stream of 1% to 2% to the company's existing $600 million in production. Production revenue for the debt consolidation unit is expected to reach $15 million during 2004.
"We intend to integrate the debt consolidation products into our outbound call center platform," stated Michael A. Barron, CEO of Consumer Direct of America. "By adding the debt consolidation portfolio of products, we hedge our mortgage business against cyclical fluctuations in the industry. Debt consolidation has traditionally been resistant to interest rate volatility."
"The addition of a direct mail marketing operation to the Consumer Direct family significantly increases our effectiveness in both the purchase market as well as the debt consolidation market. Direct mail campaigns tend to double our marketing response results," added Barron. "With Atlanta in place now, we can begin to open up the Eastern seaboard for potential acquisitions of mortgage brokerage companies."
Keep you eye on this one! Consumer Direct of America is a leading consolidator of the growing mortgage brokerage business. The company currently employs over 350 people, 240 of which are residential mortgage real estate brokerage professionals who have closed loan volume of over $630 million and $50 million in real estate sales for the year ended December 31, 2003. The company also plans to have 10 regional hubs across the U.S. by the end of 2004. The company's core competence in direct-to-consumer marketing technologies and methods results in efficiency rates that are up to 150% higher than industry averages. Watch this one! The stock closed yesterday at thirty cents a share.
Stocks showing interesting activity yesterday were: Acacia Technologies Group (Nasdaq:ACTG) up 3.4% on 288,400 shares traded, Rapidtron Inc. (OTCBB:RPDT) up 4.4% on 968,600 shares traded and USA Technologies Inc. (OTCBB:USTT) up .59% on 1.4 million shares traded.
Commentary:
"This week will be big for earnings: Wednesday in the tech sector with Apple, Intel, and Yahoo reporting, Thursday will be many financials including Bank of America, FleetBoston, and Fifth Third Bancorp. Also Wednesday, the "beige book," a report on regional economics put out by the Federal Reserve. Closely watched because it contains data the Fed looks at to determine inflation in its meetings two weeks later," stated Sonja Rudd in Wall Street News Alert's daily commentary continued at: http://www.WallStreetNewsAlert.com.
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