O.K. before the election returns come in from California, I wanted to get one more stock posted. And I have a conflict of interest on this one because this is where I get my haircut. I confess, I would rather have a young beautician clip my grey head of hair than an old guy at a barber shop. It is a weakness for me :). Regis Corp (RGS) had a nice day today. No I do not own any shares, and Yes I was joking about the conflict of interest....but I DO go there for my monthly clip. They closed today at $35.17 up $1.47 or 4.36% on the day. They announced today that revenue for the month of September grew 14% from last year to a record $143 million. Sounds nice, but their same store sales for the month weren't quite as exciting improving 1.3% over last year.
On August 26, 2003, Regis reported fourth quarter results for the quarter ended June 30, 2003. As reported on PRNewswire-FirstCall, and published on the NYTimes on the Web. Consolidated revenues for the fourth quarter increased 16.6% to a record $448 million from $384 million in hte same period last year. Earnings increased 11.1% to $.50/diluted share compared to $.45/diluted share last year.
Morningstar.com shows a fairly pretty picture. Revenue has been increasing annually from $0.9 billion in 1998, $1.0 billion in 1999, $1.1 billion in 2000, $1.3 billion in 2001, $1.5 billion in 2002, and $1.6 billion in the trailing twelve months.
Net income has increased almost without exception from $34 million in 1998 to $85 million in the trailing twelve months. On a per share basis this has been an increase from $.83 in 1998 to $1.87/share in trailing twelve months. In addition a small dividend has been paid which has increased from $.06 in 1998 to $.12 this past year.
The company has been managing their revenue well as the free cash flow, as noted on Morningstar.com, has improved from $4 million in 2000 to $92 million in the trailing twelve months.
This company DOES have a bit more debt that I might prefer with $62.1 million of cash and $217.8 million of current assets vs. $224.0 million of current liabilities and $356.3 million in long-term debt. Hopefully, with the positive cash flow, this isn't a problem and we will see the long-term debt reduced...just MY preference...it doesn't see to be a big issue to stop us from picking this stock.
This is a large company with a $1.54 billion market cap per Yahoo.com. The trailing p/e is reasonable at 17.55, the PEG ratio is very nice at 0.95 (less than 1.0) and price/sales also nice at 0.87. As I noted above the company DOES pay a small dividend with a current yield of 0.36%. There are 43.65 million shares outstanding and 41.50 million of them that float. There are 494,000 shares out short representing 2.586 days of trading as of 9/8/03.
Anyhow, this is an interesting stock that executes well and grows steadily. Not exactly high tech...but haircuts are certainly something one never outgrows! The price is reasonable and looks like a great pick except for a bit more debt than I might like....but watch this number closely as I anticipate improvement in months ahead.
Bob