Hello Friends! Well it is about 5 pm here and I really need to wrap it up for the day! I came across Carbo Ceramics which had a pretty nice day today and what's more than that looks like it has the numbers to fit well into our scheme here. As always PLEASE remember to do your own investigation on all of these stocks before making any investment decisions and PLEASE consult with your own investment advisors as to the timeliness and appropriateness of all investments discussed as I am just a fellow amateur investor sharing his ideas with all of you!
When I first saw Carbo Ceramics (CRR) on the list I suspected it was a company like Ceradyne (CRDN) that we have posted earlier...and must be making ceramic armor or something. No, I do not own any shares. But actually, according to the Yahoo "Profile", CRR is a "...producer and supplier of ceramic proppants for use in the hydraulic fracturing of natural gas and oil wells." So I guess we have EXAC, an orthopedic company that TREATS fractures, and now we have CRR, a company that goes around fracturing things! (yuck yuck). ANYHOW, (am I getting too verbose?), CRR closed today at $68.75, up $2.14 on the day or 3.21%.
On February 4, 2004, CARBO reported 4th quarter 2003 results. CRR reported revenue of $48.7 million, a 53% increase over 2002 revenues, and net income of $9.3 million or $.59/share for the quarter ended December 31, 2003. This was a 139% increase over the $3.9 million in revenue or $.25/share reported in the same quarter in 2002.
Checking the "5-Yr Restated" financials on Morningstar.com, we can see the slightly erratic but growing revenues with $84.1 million reported in 1998, increasing to $126.3 million in 2002 and $153.1 million in trailing twelve month revenue.
Earnings/share have been less impressive ranging from $1.40 in 1998 to a peak of $1.74 in 2001, and dropping to $1.28/share in 2002, and increasing to $1.53 in the trailing twelve months. Free cash flow has stayed positive but has ranged from $20 million in 2000, $23 million in 2001, dropping to $2 million in 2002, and increasing to $7 million in the trailing twelve months.
The balance sheet as reported on Morningstar.com looks nice with $27.5 million in cash and $49.2 million in other current assets, more than enough to cover both the $15.2 million in current liabilities and $14.6 million in long-term liabilities combined.
Looking at "Key Statistics" on Yahoo we can see that the market cap is a mid-cap $1.09 Billion. The trailing p/e is a bit rich at 36.49, but the forward p/e isn't bad at 28.18. No PEG ratio is reported...probably no analysts have estimates for five years out!...The price/sales is rich at 6.22.
There are 15.88 million shares outstanding with 10.70 million of them that float. Of these shares, only 394,000 shares are out short, but due to the relative low volume of trades, this still represents 4.427 trading days or 3.427% of the float as of 3/8/04.
The company DOES pay a small dividend of $.40/share yielding 0.60%. No stock dividend is reported.
Looking at a "Point and Figure" chart on Stockcharts.com, we can see that CRR has been trading sideways since 2000 and in April, 2003, broke out through a resistance level of about $34, to trade higher at its current level.
What do I think? I like this stock. It does represent a natural gas and energy play, but has great revenue growth, earnings growth, reasonable valuation (imho), and I like the recent quarterly report where they just blew out the numbers. Now that isn't a very scientific description, but what the heck, those were GREAT numbers. Unfortunately, I am TRYING hard to sit on my hands and will try NOT to buy anything until I can sell a portion of one of my stocks at a profit as scheduled.
Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have any questions, comments or words of encouragement, please feel free to email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com
Regards!
Bob