O.K. here is one I have NEVER heard of and needless to say I don't own any shares. The market overall is acting like it doesn't want to correct and indeed is resuming its bullish behavior this morning. TALX as I write, is trading at $26.25 up $1.91 or 7.82% on the day. According to money.cnn.com, TALX "...provides employees self-service solutions using interactive Web, interactive voice response, computer telephony integration software and services."
On July 30, 2003, per BUSINESS WIRE and reported by NYTimes on the Web, TALX reported fiscal first quarter results for the quarter ended June 30, 2003. Earnings from continuing operations were $2.8 million or $.20/diluted share vs $2.2 million or $.15/diluted share in 2002. Total revenues increased 11% year over year to $30.2 million from $27.2 million in 2002 due principally to "...a 44 percent gain in The Work Number services."
Morningstar.com shows an increasing if not steady change in revenues with $30 million in 1999, $36 million in 2000, $39 million in 2001, $45 million in 2002 and $126 million in 2003.
Free cash flow has improved nicely from $7 million in 2001, $10 million in 2002 and $24 million in 2003.
According to Morningstar, assets and liabilities are in fairly good balance with $9.4 million of cash on hand and $23.9 million of other current assets; $31.7 million of current liabilities and $17.9 million in long-term liabilities is reported. With the healthy free cash flow, I do not think this should be much of a problem. On September 4, 2003, TALX announced a 25% increase in the quarterly dividend which is certainly bullish for the stock.
This is a fairly small company with a $360.39 million market cap. The trailing p/e is moderate at 25.73, the PEG ratio is 1.61, and price/sales is 2.60. There are only 13.52 million shares outstanding with 12.60 million of them that float. 8.56% of float is out short with a short ratio of 3.503 (the # of days needed to cover the 'pre-sold' shares based on average daily trading volume.)
A small dividend (which was recently raised) is reported with a yield of 0.81%. The last stock split was a 10% stock dividend in 2001.
This is a very interesting and not too highly priced issue that is worthy of your consideration. I would certainly consider buying some shares if my margin balance was a little lower!
Thanks for stopping by and please come back and visit often. If you have any questions, you can email me at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com
Bob