By:
On:
In: Fair company, Stock analysis
Tagged:
With: 0 Comments

Company name The Dow Chemical Company
Stock ticker DOW
Live stock price [stckqut]DOW[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Fair

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Fair
Sales growth Poor
EPS growth Good
P/E growth Good
EBIT growth Good

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Fair
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $45.24
Target stock price (averages with growth) $58.74
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $48.97
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $35.29

The following company description is from Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=dow

The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) is a diversified manufacturer and supplier of products used primarily as raw materials in the manufacture of customer products and services worldwide. It operates in six segments. Dow provides services to a range of industries, including appliance, automotive, agricultural, building and construction, chemical processing, electronics, furniture, house wares, oil and gas, packaging, paints, coatings and adhesives, personal care pharmaceutical, processed foods, pulp and paper, textile and carpet utilities, and water treatment. Its portfolio includes specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses deliver a range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 160 countries. In March 2012, the Company’s subsidiary Dow AgroSciences LLC, divested its European Dithane fungicide business to Indofil Industries Ltd.

 

Confident Investor comments: At this time, I think that a Confident Investor can cautiously invest in this stock as long as the price is correct. Most of the fundamentals of this company are good but there are some concerns. I have removed this company from my Watch List.

 

By:
On:
In: Commentary
Tagged:
With: 0 Comments

Market Watch just did a quick story on John B. Sanfilippo & Sons [stckqut]JBSS[/stckqut]. I really haven’t followed the company so it intrigued me.  In my initial evaluation, the company would probably rate a Fair on my Confident Investor Rating scale. The intriguing thing was the unusual reason it did not come out as a Good company.

Typically, companies drop off of the Good list because they are poorly run. Most often it is not because they did not increase their sales enough but rather the earnings were not growing well enough. This typically means that costs are increasing faster than revenue.

John B. Sanfilippo & Sons is different. The increase in the EPS and EBIT is excellent and the P/E is growing nicely. It is their sales revenue that is not growing well enough, in my opinion, to make the Good list. This is usually the easiest thing for a company to fix – it simply means better execution from the sales and marketing department. Increasing earnings means the company needs to increase sales AND control costs – much tougher to do if the controls are not already in place.

In my mind, John B. Sanfilippo & Sons appears to have some good management in place. Now they just need to hire some excellent sales and marketing types to drive the top-line growth. Since it is a family-run company, let us hope the managers make this investment.

Here are a few excerpts from the Market Watch article for you to enjoy. You should click through to read the rest.

But the nut stock that intrigues me most is John B. Sanfilippo & Sons, a family-controlled company based in Elgin, Ill., that processes and markets peanuts, cashews, almonds and other nuts. It’s been around since 1922.

It owns the Fisher Nuts and Orchard Valley brands and produces private-label nuts for a lot of big retailers, including Wal-Mart.

 

Adam Strauss, co-manager of the Appleseed mutual fund, is a big investor and a fan. He explains that the company has become more proactive in recent years about marketing and focusing on the consumer. Earnings, he says, are also artificially depressed on the books as the company takes a big depreciation charge for a new facility in Illinois.

 

John B. Sanfilippo & Sons stock went, er, nuts during the Atkins Diet craze last decade, hitting $50 at one point. Today it’s $13. It’s come back down in recent months, after a huge run-up in the past two years. Small company stocks are volatile, of course: It just takes one or two big sellers to mark it down.

There are concerns in the nut business, like anything else. Commodity prices have been incredibly volatile in recent years. Consumers are watching their budgets these days. And raw nut prices tend to rise faster on the way up than the company can raise its own prices: The lag can squeeze margins. The company, furthermore, does not pay a dividend. The Sanfilippos own 68% of the voting stock. You’re an outsider.

By:
On:
In: Good company, Stock analysis
Tagged:
With: 0 Comments

Company name Deckers Outdoor Corp
Stock ticker DECK
Live stock price [stckqut]DECK[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Good

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Good
Sales growth Good
EPS growth Poor
P/E growth Good
EBIT growth Good

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Good
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $30.52
Target stock price (averages with growth) $45.49
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $48.26
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $32.48

The following company description is from Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=deck

Deckers Outdoor Corporation (Deckers) is a designer, producer, marketer, and brand manager of footwear, apparel, and accessories. Deckers markets its products under three brands: UGG, Teva and Sanuk. The Company sells its products, including accessories, such as handbags and outerwear, through domestic and international retailers, international distributors, and directly to consumers both domestically and internationally, through its Websites, call centers, retail concept stores and retail outlet stores. In addition to the Company’s primary brands, Deckers’ other brands include TSUBO, a line of casual footwear that incorporates style, function, and maximum comfort; Ahnu, a line of outdoor performance and lifestyle footwear, and MOZO, a line of footwear that combines running shoe technology with work shoe toughness for individuals that spend long hours working on their feet. On July 1, 2011, it completed the acquisition of the purchased assets of the Sanuk brand.

 

Confident Investor comments: At this time, I think that a Confident Investor can cautiously invest in this stock as long as the price is correct. Most of the fundamentals of this company are good, in fact the company ranks as a Good company, but there are some concerns with the price of the stock.

By:
On:
In: Good company, Stock analysis
Tagged:
With: 0 Comments

Company name Darling International Inc.
Stock ticker DAR
Live stock price [stckqut]DAR[/stckqut]
P/E compared to competitors Good

MANAGEMENT EXECUTION

Employee productivity Good
Sales growth Good
EPS growth Good
P/E growth Poor
EBIT growth Good

ANALYSIS

Confident Investor Rating Good
Target stock price (TWCA growth scenario) $28.59
Target stock price (averages with growth) $25.99
Target stock price (averages with no growth) $18.42
Target stock price (manual assumptions) $22.98

The following company description is from Google Finance: http://www.google.com/finance?q=dar

Darling International Inc. (Darling) is a provider of rendering, cooking oil and bakery waste recycling and recovery solutions. The Company collects and recycles animal by-products, bakery waste and used cooking oil from poultry and meat processors, commercial bakeries, grocery stores, butcher shops, and food service establishments and provides grease trap cleaning services to many of the same establishments. The Company operates in two segments: Rendering and Bakery. The Company operates over 120 processing and transfer facilities located throughout the United States to process raw materials into finished products. In June 2012, the Company acquired RVO BioPur, LLC. In September 2012, it purchased of a river terminal and storage facility located on the Mississippi River in Muscatine, Iowa from CK Processing Company and River Terminal Corporation.

 

Confident Investor comments: At this price and at this time, I think that a Confident Investor can confidently invest in this stock.

 

By:
On:
In: Commentary
Tagged: , , ,
With: 0 Comments

This infographic shows that cloud computing is a major factor in the minds of IT executives. There are several ways to play the cloud computing wave with companies that are on my Watch List.

Google [stckqut]GOOG[/stckqut]

Google Inc. (Google) is a global technology company focused on improving the ways people connect with information. The Company generates revenue primarily by delivering online advertising. As of December 31, 2011, the Company’s business was focused on areas, such as search, advertising, operating systems and platforms, and enterprise. Businesses use its AdWords program to promote their products and services with targeted advertising. In addition, the third parties that comprise the Google Network use its AdSense program to deliver relevant advertisements that generate revenue. In June 2011, it launched Google+. In September 2011, the Company acquired Zagat. In May 2012, Google acquired Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. As of January 2012, over 90 million people had joined Google+. In April 2011, the Company acquired PushLife. On July 31, 2012, it acquired marketing start-up Wildfire. In September 2012, it acquired VirusTotal and Nik Software. (This text is from Google).

Akamai [stckqut]akam[/stckqut]

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Akamai) provides content delivery and cloud infrastructure services for the delivery of content and applications over the Internet; ranging from live and on-demand streaming video capabilities to conventional content on Websites, to tools that help people transact business and reach out to new and existing customers. The Company provides private content delivery networks, Internet-based delivery of applications, such as store/dealer locators and user registration, software distribution capabilities, real-time ad targeting solutions, content targeting technology and enhanced security features. It offers application and cloud performance services, solutions for digital media and software distribution and storage, Website optimization services, network operator solutions, online advertising-related services and other specialized Internet-based offerings. In March 2012, the Company acquired Cotendo, Inc. In September 2012, the Company acquired FastSoft Inc. (This text is from Google).

Amazon [stckqut]amzn[/stckqut]

Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon.com) serves consumers through its retail Websites and focuses on selection, price, and convenience. The Company’s four customer sets include consumers, sellers, enterprises and content creators. It also manufactures and sells Kindle devices. It offers programs, which enable sellers to sell their products on its Websites and their own branded Websites and to fulfill orders through it. We serve developers and enterprises of all sizes through Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides access to technology infrastructure. In addition, it generates revenue through other marketing and promotional services, such as online advertising, and co-branded credit card agreements. The Company operates in two segments: North America and International. In June 2012, the Company acquired the publication rights from Avalon Books to over 3,000 backlist titles predominantly in the Romance, Mystery and Western categories. (This text is from Google).

eBay [stckqut]ebay[/stckqut]

eBay Inc. (eBay) is a global commerce platform. The Company enables commerce through three reportable segments: Marketplaces, Payments and GSI Commerce (GSI). These segments provide online platform, services and tools to help individuals and small, medium and large merchants globally to establish online and mobile commerce and payments. In addition, through X.commerce, it has created an open source platform, which provides software developers and merchants access to its applications programming interfaces (APIs), to develop software and solutions for commerce. As of December 31, 2011, it had more than 100 million active users transacting on its sites, millions of merchants using one or more of its platforms, and a developer community with more than 800,000 members using its APIs. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company acquired Brands4friends and GittiGidiyor. In May 2012, PRIMEDIA announced that it completed the acquisition of eBay’s Rent.com subsidiary. (This text is from Google).

The above infographic was not created by me. It was originally found on CloudTweaks. It is my belief that CloudTweaks owns the copyright to that image and all of its rights. It is recreated here simply for the convenience of my readers but they are encouraged to click through to the original site to see the full details of the infographic.