That Charles River must be one heck of a water way! I mean this is the SECOND Charles River company we are posting on this site. BTW I have seen this river and it runs through Boston....beautiful area to visit near Harvard and MIT. Must be a real source of new companies! (Our other company on this site is Charles River Associates).
CRL is having a very nice day today trading at $35.60 up $2.89 or 8.84%. Like so many of our recent selections, CRL is climbing on earnings news.
The company announced today (BUSINESS WIRE on NYTimes on the Web) that second quarter revenues were $154.4 million, a 13.1% increase over the $136.5 million reported in 2002. Net income increased 25.9% to $20.6 million or $.42/diluted share compared to $16.3 million or $.34/share last year.
I do not own any shares but this company is very intriguing and it certainly is on my shopping list!
According to CNN.Money, CRL "...is a provider of research tools and integrated support services that enable drug discovery and development, including genetically and virally defined purpose-bred rats and mice."
Reviewing Morningstar.com, my usual method of evaluating the fundamentals behind this stock, we find that revenue has grown steadily from $205 million in 1998, to $231 million in 1999, $307 million in 2000, $466 million in 2001 and $555 million in 2002. A very nice progression!
Free cash flow has grown steadily as well: $18 million in 2000, $35 million in 2001, $96 million in 2002 and $97 million in the trailing twelve months.
The company has a nicely balanced financial condition (imho), with $114.0 million in cash against $103.7 million in current liabilities. In addition, Morningstar reports an additional $172.2 million of other current assets, nearly enough to cover the entire long-term liabilities of $222.1 million. There are prettier financial pictures on the website that I have posted but this one looks reasonably solid.
Reviewing some of the numbers from Yahoo.com on the financial section under 'profile' we find that the market cap is $1.48 Billion and there are 45.3 million shares outstanding with 44.8 million that float. No dividends are paid. The p/e is a reasonable 21.66. In addition, there are quite a few shares out short at 3.10 million representing nearly 7% of the float as of 7/8/03. This would require 7.62 days of average volume....quite a bit of purchasing pressure that will develop if there is a short squeeze.
I like this company a lot as it continues to crank out revenue and earnings growth. This certainly is worthy of your consideration...not as musical as the Guitar Center...but then rats and mice aren't really that sexy an investment are they?
Regards to all of my friends! Thanks for visiting and come back soon. Please feel free to post comments right here on the website or drop me a line at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com if you have any questions, comments, or words of encouragement!
Bob