Hello Friends! Thanks so much for stopping by. It seems whenever I check the counters it seems like we continue to get more visitors at this site. I hope that means I am doing something right! Please remember though to always do your own due diligence before using any information on this or any website. Check with your financial advisors to make sure that any investment that I discuss is suitable for you before deciding what to do! If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com and I will try to get right back to you.
Anyway, that's enough for formalities. I didn't get any posts listed on Friday, so I went back today to the big movers to see if there were any interesting selections. This one, The Sportsman's Guide (SGDE) is worth investigating. I do not own any shares of this issue. According to the "snapshot" on money.cnn.com, SGDE "...is catalog retailer and Internet e-tailer of outdoor gear and general merchandise, with a special emphasis on outdorr clothing, equipment and footwear."
SGDE had a nice day Friday, closing at $21.64, up $1.64 or 8.18% on the day.
Looking at the fourth quarter 2003 results as posted on Yahoo on 2/12/04, we find that sales for the quarter were $71.7 million up from $66.3 million for the same quarter the prior year. Net earnings were $3.8 million or $.71/share for the quarter compared to $2.6 million or $.53/share the prior year.
For those of you familiar with my posts, you will know that the next place I go to research a stock is Morningstar.com, in particular I like the "5-Yr Restated" financials for this stock. Except for a super year in 1999, and the return to the trend in 2000, this stock has grown nicely since 1998. Revenues have increased from $143 million in 1998, to $185.8 million in the trailing twelve months.
Earnings/share have been a bit erratic as well, at least between 1999 and 2000. Except for that, earnings have grown from $.31/share in 1998 to $.89/share in the trailing twelve months.
Free cash flow is for me a nice measure as to the ongoing financial health of a company...that is whether it is generating money or consuming assets in its continued operation. For SGDE, free cash flow has been steady, ranging from $9 million in 2000, $12 million in 2001, $8 million in 2002, and $8 million in the trailing twelve months.
I wouldn't be done without taking a look at the balance sheet, at least as presented by Morningstar.com. In this case, we find that SGDE has $11.5 million in cash and $32.1 million in other current assets, far outweighing the current liabilities of $24.0 million and the small long-term debt reported of $200,000.
Contrary to some momentum players, I do think that valuation is important. After all, if you can get large growth numbers at a discount, why not? Anyhow, for this I like to look at "Key Statistics" on Yahoo. For SGDE, we see that this is a SMALL, actually micro cap company with a market cap of $104.61 million. The trailing p/e is nice imho at 18.81. The PEG is reasonable at 1.13, and the price/sales is cheap at 0.50.
There are only 4.84 million shares outstanding and of those, there are only 4.30 million that float. Currently, as of 1/8/04, Yahoo reports only 14,000 shares out short representing 0.378 trading days or 0.33% of the float...so the shorts are not much of a factor in this one.
No cash dividend is paid. The only stock split reported was a REVERSE split (which usually is a TERRIBLE sign for a company)...but this was LONG ago in March of 1997.
Finally, I have lately been trying to use Point and Figure charting to get a feel for the overall pricing action of each investment. For SGDE this is the stockcharts.com graph for SGDE. This stock bounced off its long term support level in late 2001 and has not looked back!
Thanks again for stopping by! I hope that my thoughts and examinations of these investments are useful for you! Again, please do your own work on these investments as they may or may not be appropriate for your investment purposes!
Regards and Happy Valentines Day Everyone!
xoxo
Bob