Hello Friends. It is late Sunday and I REALLY should be getting to sleep. I have to be up early and get out and walk...trying hard to pick up that activity you know. But it occurred to me that I should check the Friday action one last time to see if I could get any additional stocks to list here...the market was up so STRONG Friday, that I was corrrect, there was at least one more stock I could review here: Mine Safety Appliances (MSA).
MSA which trades of the AMEX, had a nice day on Friday, 2/6/04. It closed at $27.13/share up $1.43 or 5.56%. I do now own any shares of this company.
According to the money.cnn.com "Snapshot" on MSA, Mine Safety Appliances "...manufactures and sells products designed to protect the safety and health of workers. The Company also provides instruments that monitor and analyze environments." It sounds like this might be an additional 'national security' play as an investment. Maybe a little like CRDN and AH, which we have reviewed here.
Looking for the latest quarterly report, I found the MSA third quarter report right on the MSA website. Net sales for the quarter increased 20% to $172.0 million from $143.4 millin in 2002. Net income for the quarter was $24.5 million or $2.00/share vs. $5.8 million, or $.47 for the same quarter last year. I think the national security angle is correct, for the report goes on to outline where all the growth was, and that it occurred primarily in the United States, "...reflecting continued strength in shipments of gas masks to military and homeland security markets and breathing apparatus to the fire service market."
Checking the Morningstar.com "5-Yr Restated" financials, we can see that MSA has grown fairly steadily from $467.3 million in revenue in 1998 to $631.5 million in the trailing twelve months.
Earnings per share have steadily grown since 1999 (when they were down slightly from $.28 in 1998 to the $.22 level in 1999), and have increased to $1.16/share in the trailing twelve months.
Free cash flow has been solidly positive since 2000, when it was $32 million, and still positive at $17 million in the trailing twelve months per Morningstar.com.
While we have reviewed companies with prettier balance sheets, the assets and liabilities are fairly well balanced. MSA, per Morningstar, has $21.2 million in cash and $286.8 million in other current assets, plenty to cover the $99.4 million in current liabilities, and 'make a dent' on the $200.6 million in long-term liabilities.
Looking at "Key Statistics" from Yahoo.com, we can see that this is a $1.10 Billion market cap company with a trailing p/e not too bad at 22.91, and a forward p/e, based on 2004 estimates, of 19.77.
The PEG ratio isn't cheap in 2.04, and price/sales reasonable at 1.58. There are 40.68 million shares outstanding and of those, 29.29 million float. Currently there are 102,000 shares out short representing 1.0 trading days as of 1/8/04, and only 0.35% of the float.
The company DOES pay a dividend of $.28/share yielding 1.09%. The company JUST had a 3:1 stock split as of 1/29/04.
This is an interesting investment. I certainly don't have room in my trading account, what with all of my margin and the fact I have my 25 shares...but appears reasonably priced and in an interesting niche, as I remarked earlier, like Ceradyne or Armor Holding.
If you look at the point and figure chart on stockcharts.com, you can see the extremely bullish price action. The stock is trading way above its support level, and may, in my humble opinion, be in for some short-term price correction, but certainly the stock price is aggressively moving up!
As always, please remember to do your own due diligence in researching this and all other stocks mentioned on this BLOG. And use your investment advisors to answer any questions you might have about the suitabity of investments prior to taking your own action!
Thanks again for stopping by! If you have any comments, questions, or words of encouragement, please feel free to leave them right here on the website or email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com
Yours always,
Bob