Hello Friends! It is nice seeing so many of my friends around here from last year! O.K. THAT is a DUMB joke. I remember how all of my friends used to say goodbye before Christmas vacation and we would all say, "See you next year!" It wasn't very funny then either....but you have to be about 12 to appreciate it. Speaking of DUMB, here I am at 1 a.m. in the morning, double-checking the lists of greatest gainers. As my son would say, "That is PATHETIC!"....but needless to add, I found something. As always, remember to consult with your financial advisor before acting on any stock market ideas on this website!
McKesson Corp. (MCK) had a nice day today closing at $32.16 up $1.06 on the day or 3.41%. I do not currently own any shares. I did have some shares a couple of years ago in a managed account and the stock went nowhere! According to money.cnn.com, McKesson "...is a health care supply management company. The Company also provides software solutions, technological innovations and comprehensive services to the health care industry."
I found their last quarter results for the second quarter of fiscal 2004, posted on Yahoo.com on 10/23/03 from a story in BUSINESS WIRE. Revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2003, were $16.8 billion, up 23%. Net income was up 25% and diluted earnings per share were $.53 vs $.42 last year, an increase of 23%.
An interesting news story which came out today after the market closed revealed that McKesson was selected by the Department of Veteran's affairs to be the department's prime pharmaceutical vendor "in a two-year pact worth about $2.9 billion per year" quoting from Yahoo.com story: (http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/031231/1617000624_1.html)
Checking Morningstar.com for a longer stretch, we find that revenue has increased steadily the last several years from $30.0 billion in 1999, $36.7 billion in 2000, $42.0 billion in 2001, $50.0 billion in 2002, $57.1 billion in 2003 and $60.0 billion in the trailing twelve months.
Earnings per share have been a bit erratic from $.30/share in 1999 to $2.55/share in 2000, $(.17)/share in 2001 and improving steadily from there to $2.01/share in the trailing twelve months.
Free cash flow on this stock has been very impressive with $167 million in 2001, $195 million in 2002, $580 million in 2003 and $816 million in the trailing twelve months. These are VERY nice figures!
The balance sheet as reported on Morningstar.com is quite solid with $456.9 million in cash and $11.2 billion in other current assets vs $8.2 billion in current liabilities, and $1.9 billion in long-term liabilities. With the EXCELLENT free cash flow, I suspect that the balance sheet should continue to show dramatic improvement.
Looking at Yahoo "key statistics" we find that this is a large cap company with a market cap of $9.37 Billion. The trailing p/e is very nice at 15.13 and the forward p/e (based on estimates for fye 31-Mar-05) is even nicer at 12.24. The PEG ratio is under 1.0 which is GREAT at 0.85, and the price/sales is WAY under 1.0 at 0.14...probably the LOWEST price/sales on this website.
Yahoo reports that there are 291.42 million shares outstanding with a float of 290.1 million of them. There are 4.41 million shares out short....a jump of 1/2 million from the prior month...as of 12/8/03. This represents only 1.52% of the float and 2.159 trading days so this is still just moderate. The company DOES pay a small ($.24/share) dividend yielding 0.77%, and the last stock split was January, 1998, when a 2:1 split was reported.
Overall, what can I say? I like this stock a lot! The value is GREAT, it pays a dividend, it is pouring out free cash, and the balance sheet looks nice. What is there NOT to like? In fact, with the recent contract announcement with the VA, I fully expect this stock to do well in the future. Unfortunately for me, I have LOADS of margin...and am at my 25 position limit to DARN IT ALL...I will NOT be buying any shares!
Thanks again for stopping by! If you have any questions, comments, or words of encouragement, please feel free to post them right here on the website or email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com
Bob