A Big Upgrade for Powerwave Technologies

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Every day, the sun rises on Wall Street, and a plethora of professional analysts wake to issue new opinions on stocks. Here at the Fool, we use our "This Just In" column to examine some of these picks -- and the track records of the firms behind them -- so individuals can make better investing decisions.

In addition to following professional banks, anyone can use Motley Fool CAPS to monitor the collective opinions of more than 135,000 members, many of whom demonstrate better investing insight than published analysts do.

More top-performing CAPS members are feeling bullish about Powerwave Technologies (Nasdaq: PWAV) -- after bouncing between a three- and four-star rank for much of the past year, the wireless equipment maker is once again touching five-star status in CAPS. With many of the 211 members that have rated Powerwave offering analysis and commentary on the company, it's pretty easy to see just what's driving the recent optimism.

Many telecommunications solution providers such as Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN), and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) are handing out some pretty uninspiring numbers in the most recent quarter. Powerwave joined the party of misery as customers delay capital expenditures, but despite posting a loss, which narrowed to $2.1 million, the company showed signs of operational improvements. It has worked to cut expenses and was able to improve gross margins on a pro forma basis to 23.2%, versus 21.3% in the previous quarter. It was also free-cash-flow positive in the quarter and increased its cash balance to $55.4 million.

Powerwave continues to get a large portion of its revenue from telecom heavyweight Nokia (NYSE: NOK) by way of Nokia Siemens Networks -- the wireless network solution provider accounted for more than a third of revenue in the first quarter of 2009. Its diverse customer base also includes wireless operators like Sprint (NYSE: S) and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone. The company is also seeing improvement in Asian markets, particularly China, where China Unicom and China Mobile have been on a spending spree that's benefiting other suppliers as well.

To see what the very best CAPS analysts are saying now about Powerwave Technologies -- as well as other winning stocks they are picking -- head on over to CAPS and have a look.

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