I try to be eclectic here (lol). This is kind of a Peter Lynch sort of stock. Who DOESN'T have a can of WD-40 to take care 'of what ails you'? Anyhow, this stock showed up today on the lists...and it looks like a pretty good fit. (If we cannot fit it in, we could just spray a bit of WD-40 and push...yuk yuk).
Enough of my humor, money.cnn.com reports that "WD-40 manufactures a line of both lubricant and heavy-duty hand cleaning products aimed at the hardware, do-it-yourself, automotive and other retail and industrial markets. Products include WD-40, 3 IN-ONE and Lava." The stock trading under WDFC is doing well today; as I write, WDFC is trading at $31.20, up $2.45 or 8.52%.
Yesterday, WDFC reported results for the fourth quarter and the 2003 fiscal year. As reported on the NYTimes on the web, net sales for the fourth quarter ending August 31, 2003 (why do all of these companies have all of these unique fiscal years?), were $73.4 million, an increase of 11.4% over sales of $65.9 million in the fourth quarter of last year. Net income for the quarter was $10.3 million or $.61/share, compared to $8.6 million, or $.52/share last year...an increase of 19.8%.
Morningstar.com shows a steady, and accelerating revenue growth trend: $144 million in revenue in 1998, $146 million in 1999, $146 million in 2000, $164 million in 2001, $217 million in 2002, $238 million in 2003 (just reported yesterday!).
Free cash flow has been nice and improving: $18 million in 2000, $18 million in 2001, $34 million in 2002, and $40 million in the trailing twelve months per Morningstar.
The financial condition is healthy: $32.3 million in cash, $42.9 million in other current assets with $35.6 million in current liabilities and $86.9 million in long-term debt. This is slightly more debt than some of our other companies we have looked at but with the increasing free cash flow, this should not be a problem imho.
This company has a market cap of $516.1 million with a reasonable trailing p/e of 16. The PEG ratio is reported at 2.49...but with latest growth this appears to be overstated. This stock DOES have a dividend (a nice added bonus), currently yielding, per Yahoo, 2.78%. The last stock split was 2:1 in 1997. There are 16.64 million shares outstanding and 15.30 million of them float. 50.5% of the float is held by institutions. There are only 520,000 shares out short but this represents, as of 8/8/03, 9.63 days of trading with average volume so we could be witnessing a 'short squeeze'.
This is a nice company and you might wish to pick up a few shares in here. I do not own any shares....there are so many issues that I like...and I don't want to repeat that "M" word (shhhh margin)....so I cannot buy everything. Shucks. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this review and please excure my irreverant humor...did you notice?
Bob