O.K.....I sure do start a lot of these posts with "o.k."....am glad there aren't any English teachers of mine out there...or are there? Anyhow, the market is lousy today (so far) with the Dollar down internationally and overseas markets correcting...in fact in my trading portfolio I transferred $500 into the account as the margin was getting extended...and nothing had hit an 8% loss. Well with all of this doom and gloom, how about a company that sells tires? According to money.cnn.com, TBC "...is engaged in the marketing and distribution of tires in the automotive replacement market. The company also acts as a franchisor of independent retail tire and automotive service stores."
Currently, as I write, TBC is having a great day in the market....trading at $24.13, up $1.38 on the day or 6.07%. Not too shabby in the sea of red ink today.
On July 23, 2003, TBC reported results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2003. As reported by PRNewswire on NYTimes on the Web, net sales increased 14.7% to $328.8 million compared to $286.7 million in the prior year. Net income increased 15% to $7.9 million or $.35/diluted share vs $6.8 million or $.31/diluted share in the year-ago period.
Morningstar.com shows revenue growth from $0.6 billion in 1998, $0.7 billion in 1999, $0.9 billion in 2000, $1.0 billion in 2001, $1.1 billion in 2002, and extrapolating the current quarter for the whole year in 2003 would get us to the neighborhood of $1.2 billion for 2003.
Free cash flow, while not consistent, has been positive recently: $18 million in 2000, ($10) million in 2001, $30 million in 2002, and $22 million in the trailing twelve months.
Assets/Liabilities overall looks favorable with $2.7 million in cash and $340.1 million in other current assets vs. $166.0 million in current liabilities and $101.0 million in long-term liabilities.
The Market Cap, per Yahoo.com, is a moderate $527.6 million with a trailing p/e of 17.23, a PEG ratio of 1.51, and a price/sales of 0.43. Overall, the stock is very reasonably priced. Currently there are 21.71 million shares outstanding with 19.90 million of them that float. There are only 78,000 shares out short which represents 0.39% of the float and 0.684 days of trading volume.
The stock moved today on news of an acquisition of National Tire & Battery from Sears for $260 million in cash. I actually like this stock. The p/e is reasonable, the growth is steady, and it is a business I can understand. I don't own any shares and with my margin account under pressure, I don't anticipate acquiring any, but this may well be a nice purchase for one of you!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope that this week brings you good fortune.
Bob