O.K. so EVERYONE has heard of Harley Davidson and what is the point of stopping by a FREE internet site by some dude named BOB who writes about stocks you have already heard of. O.K. I hear you. How about this one, EPIQ Systems.
I have never heard of this one before two minutes ago when I came across it on the list of top gainers and NO I do not of course own any shares.
EPIQ, according to CNN.Money, "develops, markets, licenses and supports internally developed and proprietary software products for Chapter 7 and 13 bankruptcy trustees, and other users of the federal bankruptcy system." And NO DUDE Chapter 7 and 13 are NOT the best chapters in the new Harry Potter Book!
EPIQ had a great day today closing at $19.62 up $1.82 or 10.22% on the day. Apparently someone elses BAD news is EPIQ's GOOD news! They signed on to Mirant's recent bankruptcy filing and apparently are participating in Loral Space & Communication's bankruptcy. Boy is THIS a BAD NEWS BEAR stock!
On April 28, 2003, EPIQ reported results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2003, with revenue growth of 63% over the prior year ($14.6 million vs $9.0 million in 2002), and gross profit was $10.2 million compared to $6.1 million. Net income, however, was not quite as exciting on a per share basis at $.13 vs $.12 last year.
Morningstar.com shows a steady growth of this small company from revenue of $8.4 million in 1997, $11.5 million in 1998, $14.8 million in 1999, $23.3 million in 2000, $30.1 million in 2001 and $38.0 million in 2002. Extrapolating the present quarter revenue rate of $14.6 million would get us just shy of $60 million of revenue in 2003.
Free cash flow, while small, has improved nicely from $1 million in 2000, to $3 million in 2001 and $9 million in 2002.
The company is loaded with cash (relatively speaking!) with $15.9 million of cash and $11.9 million of other current assets, per Morningstar.com, with only $6.7 million in current liabilities and $5.6 million in other long term liabilities.
The market cap is a small $314.7 Million with only 17.7 million shares outstanding. There are 14.7 million shares that float. The p/e is a moderate 32.78. There are 933 thousands shares short as of 6/9/03 which represents 3.81 days of trading so does not appear to be a good candidate for a short squeeze IMHO.
This is an INTERESTING stock which has GREAT potential to rise nicely. They are small but steadily growing and improving their financial picture. I don't own any shares but would be happy to add some to my portfolio if the opportunity should arise!
Thanks again for stopping by. Be sure to skim through the loads of other posts. I think you will find them informative and certainly the price is right on this site!
Bob