There is still plenty of time to get your picks in for the stock-picking contest.  The contest goes until the end of the year, and picks may be submitted at any time.  The prize pool, so far, includes: - a $75 Amazon.com gift certificate - a 2-month subscription to Tim Sykes’ TIMalerts service - 3-month subscriptions to Ian [...]

Worth reading: Overhill Farms Announces Increased Earnings and Revenues for Third Quarter - Good, but not good enough. The market expected more from Overhill Farms (Amex:OFI), sending shares down $1.90 on Thursday. Transbotics Sign Letter of Intent for Sale of Company and Intends to Go Private - TNSB will soon be no longer. US Gold Outlines [...]

Investors in microcap nursing home provider Advocat, Inc. (AVCA) should be pleased with first quarter earnings. Revenues increased 30.9% year-over year, net income from continuing operations was up 124.7% (to $.50 per share, fully diluted), and funds from operations rose 45.7%. Part of the increase was due to Advocat’s purchase of seven [...]

I’ll be back later tonight with some thoughts on the macro environment, but even in a week like this there were some company-specific news stories worth noting.

Western Goldfields : WGDFF.OB announces second quarter earnings . Obviously, the company is still losing money because of the Mesquite Mine buildout. “Western Goldfields made significant progress in the first six months of 2007 toward bringing the Mesquite Mine into full production,” said Chairman Randall Oliphant. “We have met all of our second-quarter milestones and we have brought forward anticipated full production by three months. Everything is now in place to make Mesquite a successful producing mine and to establish a platform for the growth of Western Goldfields.” With the stock up over 30% since my purchase two months ago , I don’t mind waiting.

Advocat : AVCA acquires seven Texas operations out of bankruptcy . A number of institutional investors I know hoped that the company would shop itself around rather than pick up other operations. CEO William Council contends that the company got a bargain: “The total of the acquisition price, costs of the transaction and additional capital expenditures expected result in a multiple that is less than 4 times EBITDA, based on the 2006, pre-bankruptcy period.” Maybe, but note that the same press release says that EBITDA for the operations dropped off in 2007.

Air Industries : AIRI.OB announced a small order . Air Industries gained Sea King helicopter as a customer, but the initial order and other recent orders were under $500,000. More importantly, the company confirmed that its firm backlog was $37.3M and anticipated backlog was $65M as of March 31, a figure that should expand when Sigma Metals is integrated.

Traffix : TRFX is dissected by the 10-Q Detective . David Phillips’ review of this internet/email marketing company is a must read for microcap investors. In a strange coincidence, I bought Traffix last week for many of the same reasons he highlights.

DISCLOSURE: Long WGDFF.OB, AIRI.OB, TRFX. No position in AVCA.