Tumbleweed jumps on contract, upgrade

Tumbleweed Communications shares moved up 3 3/4, or 8 percent, to 48 3/4 Tuesday after receiving an upgrade from CS First Boston and landing a contract with Salomon Smith Barney.

Tumbleweed (Nasdaq: TMWD), which provides security software for Internet communication, said Salomon Smith Barney will use its Integrated Messaging Exchange as the platform for the brokerage firm's online messaging system.

Financial terms of the deal were not immediately available.

Also, CS First Boston analyst Todd Raker upgraded the stock from a "buy" recommendation to a "strong buy."

In its latest quarter, Tumbleweed met analysts' estimates when it posted a second-quarter loss of $8 million, or 31 cents a share, on sales of $10.1 million.

In the year-ago period, it checked in with a net loss of $5.7 million, or 79 cents a share, on sales of $3.6 million.

First Call Corp. consensus expects the Redwood City, Calif. company to lost 28 cents a share in its third quarter and $1.09 a share in the fiscal year.

The stock surged to an all-time high of 136 in March after falling to a low of 10 1/4 last August.

All seven analysts following the stock rate it either a "buy" or "strong buy."