Yesterday I couldn't find any stocks that fit our criteria, now they are literally coming out of our ears. (What an analogy huh?) This REALLY must be some sort of bullish signal when out kind of stocks start showing up in droves in the top percentage movers....don't you think? Time will tell...
Anyhow, hopefully the last post for the day, phew, FTI Consulting, Inc. (FCN),is having a great day trading at $21.90 up $1.03 on the day or 4.94%. The graph of this stock looks horrendous with a slide from almost $40 in April to its current level just over $20. Quite frankly, browsing through the news, I don't really see why the stock is down...but let's concentrate on the fundamentals:
"FTI Consulting is a multi-disciplined consulting firm with practices in the areas of bankruptcy and financial restructuring, litigation consulting and engineering/scientific investigation." per CNN.Money.
On July 23, 2003, per NYTimes on the Web FTI reported OUTSTANDING financial results: for the quarter revenue was $94.5 million an increase of 137.4% compared with $39.8 million in 2002. Income from continuing operations grew 213.6% to $18.5 million from $5.9 million in the comparable period the prior year. On a per share basis, earnings on a diluted basis grew 144.4% to $.44/share from $.18/share last year.
Morningstar.com shows revenue growing from $36 million in 1998, $49 million 1999, $96 million 2000, $122 million 2001, $224 million in 2002, and $288 million in the trailing twelve months.
Free cash flow has grown nicely from $9 million in 2000, $31 million in 2001, $69 million in 2002 and $88 million in the trailing twelve months.
Assets and Liabilities look nice with $75.5 million of cash, enough to pay off current liabilities of $64.1 million, and $81.0 million in other current assets, more than enough to cover the long term debt of $29.8 million.
This is a relatively small company with a market cap of $871.7 million, 41.8 million shares and 23.4 million that float. No dividend is paid. The short interest is interesting as there are 7.64 Million shares out short (!) representing 32.6% of the float (!!). This represents 10.26 days of average trading. This is actually bullish for this stock as we may see a short "squeeze" where traders are frantically buying shares trying to cover their borrowed shares already sold.
Anyhow, only downside, imho, is the recent graph of the stock price. The large number of shorts on this suggests they see something I don't. But would suggest that this may represent an awesome buying opportunity. If I get some free cash, this might just be one to consider a new investment!
Regards to all of my friends!
Bob