December 5, 2003 ResMed Inc. (RMD)
Hello Friends! I don't usually post twice in a morning....except when I do. And I could have sworn that I already had posted this one on my BLOG. I had to go over to the list of past picks...that you can link to on the main webpage...and scan them. How does that Santa Claus song go..."He's making a list and checking it twice...gonna find out which stock is naughty or nice?"...or something like that. Anyhow, I cannot find ResMed on the list so here goes. Further, always remember to consult with your investment advisor befoe taking any investment action on anything listed here. It may or may not be suitable or profitable for you!

ResMed (RMD) is having a nice day today trading at $41.76, up $1.56 or 3.88% on the day. According to money.cnn.com, ResMed "...designs, manufactures and distributes medical equipment for treating and diagnosing sleep disordered breathing, primarily obstructive sleep apnea." Personally, I know about this sleep apnea thing...and wear a mask each night (!)...I think there are a LOT of other snorers out there (schnorers?)...and this sleep apnea thing is going to grow unless we all go on a diet and lose a few of those extra pounds.

The latest quarter results were reported on October 28, 2003, and carried by PRNewswire-FirstCall and reported by Yahoo.com. Revenue for the first quarter ended September 30, 2003, was $72.9 million, an increase of 24% over the same quarter last year. Net income for the quarter increased 28% from the prior year to $12.2 million, and earnings per share for the quarter was $.35, an increase of 25% from last year's results.

Reviewing the Morningstar.com website, we find that revenue was $89 million in 1999, $116 million in 2000, $155 million in 2001, $204 million in 2002, and $274 million in 2003.

Earnings per share have increased from $.52/share in 1999 to $1.33/share in the trailing twelve months.

Free cash flow has also improved recently with $2 million reported in 2001, $7 million reported in 2002, and $34 million reported in 2003.

Morningstar.com reports that RMD has $121.0 million in cash and this combined with their $120.9 million in other current assets is WAY more than enough to cover both their current liabilities of $50.6 milllion and the long-term liabilities of $122.6 million.

Checking "key statistics" on the Yahoo site for RMD we find that the Market Cap is currently $1.42 Billion, the trailing p/e is 29.96, forward p/e is 20.94 (fye 30-June-05), and the PEG ratio is nice at only 1.16. However price/sales a bit steeper at 4.74.

Yahoo reports that there are 33.96 million shares outstanding with 32.50 million of them that float. Currently there are a LOT of shares out short, in my opinion, at 1.94 million as of 11/10/03. This represents 7.007 trading days of volume to cover.

No dividend is paid and the last stock split was in April, 2000.

In conclusion, I do like this stock a lot. I guess that is why I am posting it! The growth is steady, there is growing free cash, the balance sheet is excellent, the p/e is still in the 20's, the PEG is just a bit over 1.0...and I know the problem they are treating first hand. (That is the Peter Lynch portion of the analysis). The ONLY thing stopping me from buying this stock is MONEY (lol).

Thanks again for stopping by. If you are a repeat visitor, I sure appreciate your loyalty and if you have any questions, comments, or words of encouragement, please feel free to drop me a note at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com

Bob