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MTI Profit Makes Stock Scoot

MTI Technology Corp. (Nasdaq: MTIC) today reported a slight profit during its fiscal fourth quarter that ended in April -- sending its stock price zipping up as much as 23 percent earlier in the day (see MTI Reports Small Q4 Profit).

The Tustin, Calif.-based companys fourth-quarter earnings of $602,000, or 2 cents a share, were a significant improvement compared with the net loss of $10.8 million, or 33 cents a share, the company suffered for the same quarter a year ago. The results are also a step up from MTI’s third-quarter loss of $1.4 million, or 4 cents a share.

As the rest of the market slumped this morning, investors rewarded the company's profit-taking by sending its stock soaring almost 23 percent, allowing it to cross back over the $1 mark to $1.19 per share by early afternoon. Toward the end of the session MTI was trading at $1.11, up 14 percent on the day.

That was a diametrically different reaction than the 20 percent drop that hit MTI’s stock after it announced its woebegone fourth-quarter results in 2002 (see MTI Stuck in Storage Slump).

"This was a big improvement over where we were a year ago," said CEO Thomas Raimondi on a conference call today. "We believe... that the midrange marketplace is a fertile marketplace."

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