Lehigh Valley Stocks to Watch This Week: Air Products, Shift4, OraSure, and a Minor Adventure in Day Trading

— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs

I don’t recommend day trading. I almost never indulge in it, but last week, I bought 1,000 shares of OraSure (NASDAQ:OSUR) for $3.40 each.

I sold them not long afterward at $3.51 for a munificent gain of $110.

After taxes, that will be enough for a good pizza and a decent bottle of Chianti, but it is significant.

With that small sale, I made more money than some long-term holders of the little diagnostic-kit company. OraSure, based in South Bethlehem, has been on a long decline since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

What it can do externally to boost its prospects, I don’t know. OraSure needs a deal with some bigger company or another chance to get lots of federal money. Much of its revenue over the past few years was from government contracts for InteliSwab Covid tests.

The company has bounced back a bit. It was under $3 per share not long ago, and the closing price Friday was $3.51 per share.

What may have brought it back was the one thing OraSure has: cash. At the end of calendar year 2024, the company had $267.8 million in cash and equivalents. According to Yahoo finance, that’s about $3.58 in cash per share, and that can help put a floor under the stock.

Air Products went through big changes, with new management and a write-off of about $3 billion on projects it won’t pursue, now that former boss Seifi Ghasemi is out.

The stock continues to muddle along. The closing price Friday was $291.92, which is about what I paid for shares years ago. The Trexlertown-based maker of industrial gases pays a dividend, but at a 2.4% yield, it’s not a bonanza.

Activist investor Mantle Ridge pushed for a new direction, and said the shares could be worth $425. Markets have been tumultuous recently, but right now the stock is going the wrong way.

Shift4, the Upper Macungie Township-based payment processer, has fallen hard from its high of $127.50. The closing price Friday was $84.50.

Shift4’s Jared Isaacman, founder and chief executive, is leaving to take over NASA. In addition to making himself a billionaire, he’s also gone into space twice, on missions with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Company president Taylor Lauber will take over.

The company processes more than $200 billion in credit-card payments annually, and takes a small cut. Among its competitors are Toast (NYSE:TOST), which has a market capitalization of $19.8 billion, more than twice Shift4’s $7.5 billion.

Shift4 makes money when people are out, spending at hotels, restaurants, stadiums and other businesses. Its expanding its coverage to loyalty programs and charitable giving, but fears of a recession may be hurting the stock.

— Disclosure: I own shares of Air Products. I did a quick trade of OraSure, as noted above (don’t indulge in day-trading, really) and I used to own Shift4. I sold recently with a good gain, but not at the 52-week high. I still like the stock and may buy back in.