Hello Friends. Thanks for stopping by. Our heady gains the last week or so was making me feel a bit invulnerable to any correction. What is that old saying? 'pride cometh before the fall." Must be Shakespeare (?). Anyhow, we have backed off a bit and have sold some Odyssey Healthcare shares this morning on a bit of a pullback. This shows how while p/e is not necessarily a good indicator of future performance, a relatively steep p/e may put a stock at a bit of risk in corrections. Remember, always discuss with your financial advisor any information you may glean from this website as it may or may not be a suitable investment for you!
Came across Gevity HR, Inc. (GVHR) today. I do not own any shares but it is an interesting stock. Currently GVHR is trading at $23.87, up $1.46 on the day or 6.51%. According to money.cnn.com, Gevity "...provides professional employer services, including payroll administration, risk management, benefits administration, unemployment services and human resource consulting services, typically to small and medium-sized businesses."
On October 23, 2003, Gevity reported their third quarter results for the quarter ended September 30, 2003. This was picked up from PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX, and placed on the internet where I viewed it on NYTimes on the web. In this report, they related that revenues in the third quarter increased 8.9% to $102.8 million compared to $94.4 million in the third quarter of 2002. Net income increased 307.1% to $4.1 million in the quarter compared to $1.3 million in the third quarter of 2002. On a per share basis, this was $.16/diluted share compared to $.06/diluted share last year. Very nice results!
Reviewing Morningstar.com, we find steady revenue growth from $256.2 million in 1998, $286.7 million in 1999, $322.3 million in 2000, $332.8 million in 2001, $374.7 million in 2002 and $395.5 million in the trailing twelve months.
Earnings/share, however, while increasing from last year have been quite erratic with $.97/share reported in 1998 dropping to a loss of ($.76)/share in 2001, but improving steadily since then to $.39/share in the trailing twelve months. Extrapolating the current quarter would get us to $.64/share in 2003.
Free cash flow has stayed mostly positive but is also a bit erratic from $35 million in 2000 to ($3) million in 2001, back positive at $34 milion in 2002, and $10 million in the trailing twelve months.
The balance sheet looks fine with $134.2 million in cash and $100.9 million in other current assets vs $13.8 million in current liabilities and $173.2 million in long-term liabilities.
Checking Yahoo.com for "key statistics" on this company, we find that the market cap is only $453.6 million. The trailing p/e is a bit rich at 48.34 but the forward p/e (for fye 31-Dec-04) is only 27.00. This reasonableness in the price is reflected in the PEG which is a bit over 1.0 at 1.36, and the price/sales very reasonable at 1.05.
Yahoo reports 19.0 million shares outstanding with 12.20 million of them that float. Currently there are only 605,000 shares out short as of 11/10/03, representing 1.551 trading days. The company does pay a small dividend of $.20/share yielding 0.89%.
This is an interesting stock. I certainly don't have a place for it in my portfolio...remember I have to stay at 25...the stock is doing well, has grown its revenue consistently, has a reasonable PEG at 1.36, but its p/e is a bit rich although appears to be dropping quickly. It is certainly a stock for me to consider!
Thanks for stopping by! Please email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com if you have any questions, comments, or words of encouragement!
Bob