10 Best Japanese Stocks To Buy Right Now

10 Best Japanese Stocks To Buy Right Now: iRobot Corp (IRBT)

iRobot Corporation (iRobot), incorporated in August 1990, designs and builds robots. The Company's home care robots perform time-consuming domestic chores while its government and industrial robots perform tasks, such as battlefield reconnaissance and bomb disposal, multi-purpose tasks for local police and first responders, and long-endurance oceanic missions. It sells its robots to consumers through a range of distribution channels, including chain stores and other national retailers, and through its on-line store, and to the United States military and other government agencies globally. It designs and builds robots for the consumer and government and industrial markets. It sells its products through distinct sales channels to the consumer and government and industrial markets. In the United States and Canada, it sells its consumer products through a network of national retailers. As of December 31, 2011, this network consisted of more than 30 retailers, which often sel l either one or some combination of its products. Its smaller domestic retail operations are supported by distributors to whom it sells product directly. It sells its government and industrial products directly to end users and indirectly through prime contractors and distributors. During the year ended December 31, 2011, sales to non-the United States customers accounted for 45.5% of total revenue.

Consumer Products

The Company sells various products, which are designed for use in and around the home. Its consumer products are focused on both indoor and outdoor cleaning applications. It offers multiple Roomba floor vacuuming robots and Scooba floor washing robots. Its Roomba robot's compact disc shape allows it to clean under beds and other furniture, resulting in cleaner floors. In addition, it cleans automatically upon the push of a button. ! Its Scooba robot's cleaning process allows the robot to simultaneously sweep, wash, scrub and dry hard floors, all at the touch of a button. Its Verro Pool Cleani! ng Robot is used to clean a residential pool and removes debris as small as two microns from the pool floor, walls and stairs. Verro is brought to market under the iRobot brand through a relationship with the Aqua Products Group companies, including AquaJet LLC and Aquatron, Inc., which developed the pool cleaning robots.

The Company's Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot cleans an entire stretch of gutter. The Looj also features a detachable handle that doubles as a wireless remote control, providing control of the robot while cleaning.

Government and Industrial Products

In government and industrial product markets, the Company offers both ground and maritime unmanned vehicles. Its tactical ground robots include the combat-tested 510 PackBot line of small, unmanned ground robots, the 310 small unmanned ground vehicle (SUGV) and XM1216 SUGV (Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle) multi-purpose ground robots, the 110 FirstLook small, light, throwable robot, and the 710 Warrior multi-purpose robot capable of carrying heavy payloads. The PackBot, SUGV, FirstLook, and Warrior robot series make up a family of robots using many common platform components and offer its flipper technology, which enables robots to climb stairs, navigate rubble, and penetrate inaccessible areas. These robots keep war fighters and public safety officials out of harm's way and are designed for performing search, reconnaissance, mapping, bomb disposal and other dangerous missions. As of December 31, 2011, more than 4,500 robots had been delivered to military and civil defense forces globally. Its Aware 2 software is incorporated into the 510 PackBot chassis and operator control unit. As a result, PackBot can support multiple configurations and payloads with the same chassis and operator control unit, providing customers with a single robo! t capable! of performing multiple missions.

Contract Research and Development Projects

< p>The Company is involved in several contract development pr! ojects wi! th the United States governmental agencies and departments. The durations of these projects range from a few months to several years. These projects are usually funded as either cost-plus, firm fixed price, or time and materials contracts. In a cost-plus contract, it is allowed to recover its actual costs plus a fixed fee. Under a firm fixed price contract, it receives a fixed amount upon satisfying contractually defined deliverables. On its time and materials contracts, it recovers a specific amount per hour worked based on a bill rate schedule, plus the cost of direct materials, subcontracts, and other non-labor costs, including an agreed-upon mark-up.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  www.irobot.com Since hitting a recent high of $41.79 on July 1, shares of iRobot (IRBT) stock have lost more than one-quarter of their value, falling to around $30 in recent trading. But why are the wheels coming off the Roomba maker? You can sum up the answer in just one word: Dyson. IRobot makes machines for all sorts of customers -- including the Looj for gutters, the Mirra pool scrubber, the U.S. military's Packbot IED-disarming robot (ubiquitous in Iraq and Afghanistan) and the Seaglider robotic submarine. But most consumers associate it with just the Roomba. And for good reason. According to data from S&P Capital IQ, when viewed from a financial perspective, iRobot basically is Roomba. Last year, iRobot's Home Robots division (of which Roomba is the largest part) accounted for nearly 88 percent of iRobot revenues. The company sold nearly $428 million worth of vacuum cleaners -- vs. only about $50 million worth of robots for defense and security. So it's not overstating to say that the company lives and dies by the success of the Roomba. What's Bad News for iRobot ... From one perspectiv! e, that's! very bad news for iRobot. Because as one recent review details, the competition among floor-cleaning automatons is heating up. Consumer Reports -- the go-to source for unbiased product reviews -- has yet to publish a comprehensive review of robotic vacuums. But in March, consumer products review site TopTenReviews.com published ratings for 10 floor-cleaning robots, including P3 International's V-Bot ($107), the Neato XV-21 ($429) and iRobot's Roomba 650 ($399.99). The best of the bunch was the XV Signature Pro ($399.99), manufactured by privately held Neato. According to TTR, while Roomba beat out the competition on performance, it lagged Neato on the design of its model and the features. And now the Roomba faces a challenge from Dyson, which is usually rated really good, but really pricey in consumer surveys. (Bargain seekers are urged to buy Hoover o

• [By Beth McKenna]

  Shares of iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT  ) were pummeled after the company released its second-quarter 2014 results last month. The robot maker fell short of revenue estimates, and missed earnings estimates by a hair if we exclude the benefit of a one-time tax valuation allowance. 

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  iRobot Corp. (Nasdaq: IRBT), with a current short float of 35.2%, has seen its shares dive 22% on the month. The pioneer of the Roomba, a vacuum-cleaning robot, faced heavy scrutiny in late May when the New York money manager Spruce Point Capital released a report that deemed IRBT shares overpriced and riding the hype of an imagined "robotics revolution." It reported that mounting competition in home vacuums was threatening to diminish its market share and dilute future growth potential.

• [By John Udovich]

  Finally and as for aggressive accounting, I should also note that I wrote about the stock after its last earnings report (see: Small Cap Robotics Stock iRobot Corporation (IRBT): A Buy After an Earnings Dip? ADEP & ROBO) where I mentioned post earni! ngs CEO i! nterviews on CNBC and Bloomberg (aggressive accounting was not covered) that would seem to cast doubt on another statement: "Spruce Point Believes IRBT Is No Longer A Robotic Innovator."

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/10-best-japanese-stocks-to-buy-right-now.html