What a LOUSY day in the market. Dow down 100+, Nasdaq down 40+....but here I am scanning the stock lists. I must be in denial. But in spite of all the noise on the street I think we have a good stock that is worth your examination. Headwaters (HDWR), boy I wish I owned this one in my portfolio....is trading at $17.41 up today in this lousy market by $1.82 or 11.67%.
According to money.cnn.com, Headwaters "...is engaged in developing and deploying energy-related technologies to the marketplace. It is focused on coverting fossil fuels into alternative energy products." How about THAT for a timely investment?
Some of the numbers are a little confusing, but I got a good earnings report for the Second Quarter ended June 30, 2003, by going to the Headwaters website. Anyhow, Total revenue (pro forma) which I assume accounts for acquisitions, was $94.1 million in 2002, and $106.4 million in 2003 second quarter. Operating income increased from $17.6 million to $21.7 million in 2003, and on a per share basis, increased from $.31/share to $.37. The stock moved up nicely by being upgraded by Stephens, Inc., and looking at the headlines, we find that Adams Harkness also upgraded this stock on 9/29/03.
Morningstar.com shows a nice picture of rapidly growing revenue from $2 million in 1998, $7 million in 1999, $27.9 million in 2000, $45.5 million in 2001, $119.3 million in 2002 and $250 million in the trailing twelve months.
Earnings from share have improved smartly from a loss of ($1.17) in 1998 to a profit of $1.07 in the trailing twelve months.
Free cash flow, another of my favorite indices, has been increasing nicely from $6 millin in 2000, $19 million in 2001, $42 million in 2002, and $55 million in the trailing twelve months.
The balance sheet is a bit of concern to me with only $10.7 million in cash, $66.5 million in other current assets, enough to cover current liabilities of $61.4 million but not enough to cover long-term liabilities of $189.5 million...but with the increasing free cash flow, this does not appear to be a problem for this company. After all, long-term liabilities are not due NOW....but sometime in the future, when free cash flow should cover them.
On Yahoo.com, we find that the market cap of this company is $484.92 million. The trailing p/e is, get this 13.21, the PEG ratio is 0.53 and price/sales is 1.33. Wow, these are NICE numbers.
There are 27.79 million shares outstanding and 26.5 million of them float. Currently there are 996,000 shares out short representing 3.009 days of average trading volume. No cash dividend is paid and the last stock dividend was a 2:1 in January of 1996.
On a Peter Lynch basis, intuitively, investing in a company involved in coal into alternative energy products makes sense. On a numerical basis, this stock looks GREAT. They have had two recent upgrades and have a REASONABLE p/e, and a PEG ratio under 1.0. Price/sales is also good at 1.33.
Now, if I wasn't already MARGINED to my ears, and actually adding some cash to my account, I would consider buying some of these shares. As you can see, I don't own any of these shares at this time.
Thanks again for stopping by! If you have any questions, please feel free to post them here or email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com!
Bob