The market is drawing to a close....9 minutes to close at 2:51 pm cst....and it may take me that long to get this post together.
Came across this one on the largest percentage gainers on the NYSE...MRN...according to CNN.Money, MRN "is a provider of healthcare staffing services in the United States."
Currently MRN is trading at $7.52 up $.46 or 6.52% on the day. This in the face of a Dow nown 70+ points...while NASDAQ up about 10. This leg of the rally is getting a bit tired.
On May 12, 2003, (17 days ago) MRN reported record revenues of $144.4 million for the first quarter of 2003 which is a 39.9% increase over revenues of $103.2 million for the first quarter of 2002...per the NYTimes on the Web. Net income increased to $5.2 million or $.17 per diluted share compared to $2.8 million or $.13 per diluted share for the prior year's first quarter.
The stock has performed rather poorly in light of the stellar earnings report due to the company's reticence to forecast 2003 earnings due to 'poor visibility'. CS First Boston cut them to 'underperform' from 'outperform' on 5/13/03 per CBS Marketwatch report. There was some question about the possible contraction of demand for temporary nurses.
Looking at Morningstar.com we find that revenue grew from $33.1 million in 1998 to $96.5 million in 1999, to $182.0 million in 2000, and $338 million in 2001 with $403.4 million in the trailing twelve months.
During the four months prior to the current reported quarter, revenue growth was STRONG with increases of 93.97%, 60.15%, 46.47% amd 38.82% growth sequentially.
Free cash flow is still negative at $-5 million. However the Assets/Liabilities picture is about 2:1 assets to liabilities.
Overall an interesting stock, our second temporary medical help stock in our watch list...but not perfect numbers and difficulty in 'visibility' into 2003.
Regards,
Bob