These guys manufacture testing and measurement equipment for use in pharmaceutical, medical and industrial applications. They have consistently achieved operating margins of 30%+ and returns on equity of 15% in the last 10 years. Management seems very conservative in the use of capital and they have achieved most of their growth organically. They acquired Raven Labs last year, I believe they paid a fair price for it (not cheap, but fair), and the acquisition was immediately accretive. With no debt, excellent returns on invested capital, and high free cash flow yields, I think they can weather any trouble that might come their way.
Their cash conversion cylce is not the greatest but it has improved significantly over the last 5 years. I think this is quite reasonable to expect from a micro-cap firm like this. The stock took a beating today, I believe in response to a decrease in sales of their main DataTrace datalogger product. To quote their press release:
"The decrease in DataTrace sales during the quarter reflects a short fall in shipments rather than a weakness in orders as depletion of subassembly components following our strong fourth quarter slowed shipments during the first half of the quarter."
This presents a great opportunity to jump in. Everything else at the company is fine. All their other products showed strong growth this quarter and their margins improved significantly. Management stated that the margin improvements due to material cost reductions are sustainable but the improvement due to labor savings is not. Management is very candid about their operations and I think we're in safe hands. Hell, insiders own about 21% of stock.
The only concern with this investment is the illiquidity of the stock. It trades about 500 shares/day on most day. So please be careful in your trading and your portfolio weighting with this stock.
$21.38 (08/14/07)
