May 10

ADVERTISING

American Vanguard Corp. (NYSE: AVD) fell 25% to $9.46 a share and a $263 million market cap. The Newport Beach-based agricultural products company yesterday reduced its projected annual sales growth from as much as 12% to a maximum of 9% after the company suspended sales of its Dacthal herbicide “in light of concerns raised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” CEO Eric Glenn Wintemute told analysts.

ENERGY

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq: CLNE) climbed 9.8% to $2.65 a share and a $580 million market cap. The Newport Beach-based renewable natural gas supplier today released first-quarter results that beat analysts’ estimates.

INDEXES

The yield on a 10-year Treasury bond rose 1.2% to 4.50%.

–Kaitlin Aquino

May 9

BIOPHARMA

CG Oncology Inc. (Nasdaq: CGON) fell 2.5% to $31.64 and a $2.1 billion market cap. The Irvine-based immunotherapy company today reported first-quarter loss of 36 cents a share, wider than the 31-cent loss expected by four analysts. See Monday’s print issue of the Business Journal for more details.

HEALTHCARE

ICU Medical Inc. (Nasdaq: ICUI) rose 4.5% to $105.14 and a $2.5 billion market cap. The San Clemente-based maker of devices for IV infusion reported first-quarter revenue of $566.7 million on May 7, topping analysts’ consensus of $522.3 million.

May 8

MEDTECH

Staar Surgical Co. (Nasdaq: STAA) declined 15% to $39.55 and a $2 billion market cap. The Lake Forest-based provider of implantable eye lenses yesterday maintained its 2024 sales forecast, citing a macroeconomic headwinds.

Masimo Corp. (Nasdaq: MASI) fell 14% to $116.92 and a $6.2 billion market cap. The Irvine-based maker of oxygen monitoring devices yesterday forecast revenue and adjusted profit for the second quarter and year that may not meet some analysts’ expectations.

                                                                                                    —Peter J. Brennan

May 7

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May 6

May 3

HEALTHCARE

Alignment Healthcare Inc. (Nasdaq: ALHC) soared 26% to $6.63 per share with a market cap of $1.3 billion. The Orange-based firm yesterday reported first quarter revenue of $629 million showing a 43% increase year over year, which surpassed its Q1 revenue forecast of $590 million to $600 million.

RESTAURANTS

Costa Mesa-based El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LOCO) jumped 16% to $9.95 apiece and a $310 million market cap. The restaurant chain’s first quarter sales profit beat analysts’ average estimate of 14 cents per share. Yesterday, El Pollo Loco reported net income of $5.9 million, or 19 cents per diluted share, for the quarter ended March 27, 2024.

INDEXES

The S&P 500 rose 1.2% to 5,125.12, the Dow was up 1.2% to 38,665.37 and the Nasdaq increased 1.9% to 16,148.93 during midday trading.

The Labor Department reported today a slowdown in hiring with U.S. employers adding 175,000 jobs in April, which was below expectations.

The yield on a 10-year Treasury bond fell 1.33% to 4.51%.

–Emily Santiago-Molina

May 2

HEALTHCARE

The Ensign Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ENSG) fell 2.3% to $116.73 apiece and a $6.6 billion market cap. The San Juan Capistrano-based healthcare services firm yesterday reported first quarter adjusted revenue of $1 billion, up 14% over the prior year, and diluted earnings per share of $1.19, an increase of 13% from a year ago.

While the company’s adjusted first quarter profit exceeded consensus estimates, Ensign reiterated its full year forecast. The shares last month reached an all-time high of $127.58.

TECHNOLOGY

Santa Ana-based TTM Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: TTMI) jumped 9.8% to $16.23 per share with a market cap of $1.6 billion. The tech manufacturer yesterday reported first quarter net sales of $570 million and net income of 10 cents per diluted share, which beat the general analyst consensus.

INDEXES

The Nasdaq increased 1.2% to 15,785.13 during midday trading.

–Emily Santiago-Molina

May 1

TECHNOLOGY

Skyworks Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq: SWKS) declined 15% to $90.17 and a $14.5 billion market cap. The Irvine-based chipmaker yesterday forecast third-quarter results that will miss analysts’ consensus estimates. For more on Skyworks, see the May 6 print issue of the Orange County Business Journal.

The post Midday Stock Roundup: American Vanguard Down 25% appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The total amount is down almost 22%, to just under $109.9 million for the 12 lenders surveyed by the Business Journal. The drop is on top of the fall on last year’s list of 18%, as borrowers held back due to rising interest rates.

The Business Journal’s annual list of the largest small business lenders measures lending for the six months ended March 31 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Going in the upside direction is California Statewide Certified Development Corp. in Brea, which boosted its total by 52% year-over-year to $24.9 million, for the six months ended March 31.

The company is a nonprofit that makes available low-cost, fixed-rate commercial-industrial real estate financing to expanding small businesses under the SBA’s 504 loan program.

California Statewide finished in first place on this year’s Business Journal list, up three places year-over-year, followed by Business Finance Capital of Los Angeles and Mortgage Capital Development Corp. of Irvine, which is doing business as TMC Financing.

175% Jump

U.S. Bank’s SBA division in Irvine saw a 175% jump in the dollar value of its small business lending, more than doubling the amount to $5.9 million for the six months through March 31, pushing its ranking up seven spots to No. 6. The huge increase is likely due in no small part to U.S. Bank having completed its acquisition of Union Bank more than a year ago.

On last year’s list, Union Bank had $8.15 million in loans while U.S. Bank reported $2.15 million.

“U.S. Bank has a long history of serving small businesses in Orange County. We have seen an increase in lending because of U.S. Bank’s continued commitment to our community, which has included adding business banking and SBA bankers,” Catherine Jooyan, senior vice president and SBA regional manager for California, told the Business Journal on May 2.

PCB Bank of Los Angeles boosted its SBA loans in Orange County by 270% for the six-month period, to claim No. 8.

PCB Senior Vice President and Loan Manager Peter Han told the Business Journal that “we simply received increased request from the region during that period.”

“Increased demand and larger loan amount requests contributed to the overall increase during the first two quarters ending March 31, 2024, in comparison to March 31, 2023,” Han said by e-mail.

Southland Economic Development Corp. of Santa Ana was down 66% to $2.7 million for the six-month period, ranking No. 10.

The post SBA Lending in OC Falls 22% to $110M appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

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The acquisition adds 4,500 members, $80 million in assets and 14 branches in the San Diego area to Nuvision, which currently has 160,000 members, $3.2 billion in assets and 26 branches spread among five western states.

The combined credit union will operate under the Nuvision name and charter, with leadership and employees from both credit unions. Nuvision CEO Roger Ballard will be CEO of the continuing credit union; PVFCU CEO Bud Schaffner will remain with the combined credit union, who will focus on business development and community outreach in the San Diego area.

“With our shared mission and values, together we’ll continue to serve all the financial needs of our hard-working members, providing an enhanced banking experience, while maintaining PVFCU’s long heritage of service to its members and the San Diego community,” Ballard said in a statement.

The post Nuvision Expands in San Diego appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Pfister co-founded the Irvine-based provider of equipment financing in 2021.

His appointment comes after a six-month long search for a CEO, President Brad Kissler said.

Mazo cites Pfister’s leadership for the company’s fast growth since its founding. Mazo was the second fastest-growing private company locally in the small category with revenue growth of 2,313% to $4.8 million, according to last year’s Business Journal list.

“As we embark on this new chapter, I have every confidence that John will elevate our company to new heights, leveraging his innovative mindset and inspiring leadership to unlock our full potential,” Co-Founder and COO Andy Kim said in a statement.

The post Mazo Capital Appoints New CEO appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

With its current count of 24 stores for the Santa Ana-based nonprofit, Goodwill OC is looking to approach a 50-store count by 2033.

The first store toward this goal opened last September in Anaheim at 790 North Brookhurst St.

It is Goodwill OC’s largest store spanning 23,942 square feet.

A second store opened in Orange on Taft Street in October. Two more stores are expected to open this year, starting with a shop in Fountain Valley this month. Goodwill recently signed a lease for a new spot in Costa Mesa.

The organization is also opening a new Irvine donation center at Irvine United Congregational Church.

Jensen said with donations driving revenue, Goodwill is aiming to open more centers in cities without a store.

“With this growth, we create new jobs,” Jensen told the Business Journal. “That is the mission—creating a place where people can come work and build their careers.”

Jensen was honored in the nonprofit category at the Business Journal’s CFO of the Year Awards last May.

There’s significant demand in OC for additional Goodwill stores, based on the volume of donations and same-store metrics, according to Jensen.

The local organization, which launched in 1924, reported $169 million in local revenue for the 12 months ended June 2023.

Sales from its brick-and-mortar side are combined with Goodwill’s growing online shop, which can generate almost $270 million in sitewide sales, to fund the organization’s job coaching and career support services.

Online sales from ShopGoodwill.com, which is run out of Orange County, surpassed a cumulative $2 billion last year.

ShopGoodwill brings together items from 130 Goodwill organizations across the country. Revenue is then shared among the participating organizations, though the local chapter has managed the website since its inception in 1999.

The website has 3.4 million registered customers as of 2023.

The nonprofit integrated the secondary e-commerce site GoodwillBooks.com into the website in October to help expand offerings.

Goodwill served 23,110 individuals in its workforce development programs last year and met its fundraising goal.

Fundraising fills in the gaps of funding Goodwill’s programs that the retail stores cannot fully provide, Jensen said.

“We are responsible to ensure that we are good stewards of the funds that are entrusted to us,” Jensen added.

The post Goodwill Plots Next 10 Years appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

“The past year has been a busy one as CathWorks has scaled its global co-promotion with Medtronic as it continues to expand the reach of its novel product, FFRangio, in all three major device geographies,” Feher told the Business Journal.

As part of the 2022 agreement, Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) has the option to buy Irvine-based CathWorks by 2027 at a $585 million valuation, plus other earnout payments.

CathWorks has developed a noninvasive way of diagnosing heart disease. In the standard testing procedure, a catheter is inserted into a heart and drugs are administered to dilate blood vessels to monitor blood flow. Physicians eyeball X-rays to determine if a stent should be inserted.

By contrast, CathWorks’ FFRangio System uses a noninvasive five-minute procedure that doesn’t require drugs. It’s a combination of advanced algorithms, artificial intelligence, machine learning and user interface to provide a 3D image of the heart that is color coded.

Feher, who learned his financial chops by working at two world giants in their fields—Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW) in medical devices and Allied Universal in private security—twice took a chance to jump into a startup with CathWorks in 2019 and again in 2021.

“The biggest thing was seeing and believing in the technology,” Feher said a year ago. “I couldn’t pass up seeing that technology come to life.”

About 19 million people globally, including 1 million in the U.S., die every year because of heart diseases, about 35% of total global mortality, making it by far the world’s biggest killer, according to CathWorks.

CathWorks Chief Executive Ramin Mousavi himself has twice won Business Journal awards: Excellence in Entrepreneurship in 2022 and Innovator of the Year in 2023.

Last June, CathWorks began enrollment in its clinical study, ALL-RISE, which is a prospective randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed at transforming the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease by evaluating the clinical and economic benefits of the FFRangio System.

The study, the first and largest trial of its kind to be conducted in the U.S., Europe, Japan and the Middle East, is expected to enroll close to 2,000 patients across 60 sites internationally.

It wasn’t all work during the past year. Feher and his wife, Christine, enjoyed getting their 9- and 7-year-olds involved in a variety of sports. The family also took a surf trip to Costa Rica during the holidays where Feher said they found “great waves.”

“The trip to Costa Rica with the family was amazing!” Feher said. “It was one of the best times of my life getting the kids in the water and they shredded.”

The post CathWorks, Medtronic Partner on Heart Technology appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

All eyes have been on Masimo since the medical device company, best known for its monitoring products used at hospitals, announced a potential spinoff of its consumer business last month.

Masimo is listening to its shareholders with the latest decision, Young said.

“I think it was challenging for stockholders to really understand how to value the company when it’s more of a hybrid between healthcare and consumer,” Young told the Business Journal.

“We think the best opportunity is to separate it out where both companies can succeed and drive value for shareholders.”

The announcement was met with positive initial reactions. Shares in Masimo went up 14% in after-hours trading the day of the news and opened at $154 per share the following Monday, according to Young.

Masimo, now valued around $7.5 billion, is still in the assessment phase of the spinoff but wants to move “as quickly as possible” so it can provide more details to its investors, Young said.

“There’s many ways to separate a company, whether it’s spinning it into a new public company or selling it to a partner, but our goal is to keep it fully [separated] from the healthcare business,” Young said.

Young received the Business Journal’s CFO of the Year Award in the public category last May for helping steer the company into new markets like watches and baby monitors.

Those units would be part of the new consumer product company, if the spinoff moves ahead.

Young described 2023 as a difficult transition year for Masimo coming off the high demand it experienced during the pandemic.

Despite this, Masimo managed to finish the year strong, ending with $549 million in fourth-quarter revenue, beating the Zacks consensus.

“We achieved over $77 million in operating cash flow and that was really due to the strong earnings, as well as focused improvements in working capital,” Young said.

Young said Masimo dealt with some distractions last year, including a challenging proxy battle with Politan Capital Management, which continues to push for change, as well as ongoing legal battles with Apple.

Masimo is now “laser focused” on the spinoff as it faces a second battle with the activist investor, Young said.

“We want to get back to that story of meeting and exceeding expectations,” Young said.

The post A Busy Docket for Device Maker Masimo appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The Irvine-based IT firm, which provides edge-to-edge information technology solutions and services for Fortune 1000 companies, late last year announced a partnership with ReadyWorks, a digital platform conductor from New York.

ReadyWorks’ software is expected to boost Technologent’s capabilities to: optimize on-premises, public cloud, and private cloud resources; automate business and IT processes; maintain cyber resiliency; and implement data management solutions.

The partnership “extends the services we are able to deliver to our customers,” said Jack Pieracini, area vice president at Technologent. “ReadyWorks addresses one of the biggest challenges felt across enterprises today—namely how to extract value from existing tech investments by leveraging the data they hold and automating responses to it.”

The deal is expected to drive more business to Technologent, which has enjoyed over 20% growth in annual revenue in recent years.

Technologent helps clients outpace the new digital economy by creating IT environments that are “agile, flexible, efficient, transparent and secure,” using a variety of hybrid infrastructure, automation, security and data management products.

Owner Tom Gallaway founded Technologent as a Sun Microsystems reseller over 20 years ago, selling $9 million in its first year with a single sales representative.

Cooper serves as the company’s chief executive, chairman and chief financial officer, and the latter role earned her a CFO of the Year Award last May, when she received an award in the Lifetime Achievement category from the Business Journal.

It’s the second recent Business Journal accolade for Cooper; in 2022 she was one of the honorees at the 28th annual Women in Business Awards.

The firm’s headcount is now nearly 265 employees, with about 90 of them in Orange County.

In addition to Irvine, Technologent has 13 offices in the U.S., including San Diego and Las Vegas.

The post IT Firm Technologent Ups Its Digital Platform appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

A month after receiving the recognition, Reindl was promoted from vice president of corporate development, financial planning and analysis to chief financial officer at the Irvine-based firm.

“It’s been a great new challenge,” Reindl told the Business Journal.

“Grant has had a notable impact on Salas in a relatively short period of time and is a natural choice for this role,” Salas’ Chief Executive Darin Anderson said in a statement. “He has all the characteristics of a successful CFO.”

Reindl joined Salas in 2020 and has since overseen 28 M&A deals, which have helped the company more than double its revenue from $160 million to over $500 million.

Salas today comprises 80 offices and 2,800 team members across North America, representing roughly 14% in headcount growth since the same year ago period.

Reindl in 2022 led Salas through eight mergers, despite global strategic deal volumes falling 9% from the year prior, according to a report from management consulting firm Bain & Company.

Under Reindl’s leadership, Salas this year has already completed five mergers.

“We still look for high-performing firms with a proven track record of success,” Reindl said.

“Lately, we have been partnering with bigger firms,” such as Nashville-based consulting engineering firm I.C. Thomasson Associates Inc. (ICT).

ICT, which has been in business for over 80 years and has about 275 employees, is more than double the size of most companies Salas has merged with, according to Reindl.

“It’s exciting to see firms like ICT, which has a storied history and strong reputation, want to join Salas,” he said.

Salas this year has also welcomed a new minority investor: Blackstone Inc., the world’s largest alternative asset manager (NYSE: BX). Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

The company is still majority-owned by its team members, officials said.

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