TTMI: TTM Technologies Could be Sitting Pretty

My latest column is up at RealMoney.

TTM Technologies (TTMI) manufactures printed circuit boards for the high-end commercial and aerospace/defense markets. The company focuses on a “quick-turn” model that can provide custom-fabricated PCBs to customers within as little as 24 hours. This strategy allows TTM to charge a premium for quick-turn services (which account for 15% of total revenue) and insulates TTM from the extreme cyclicality faced by most electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers. In the last 10 years, the company reported just one year of net losses (2002).

TTM’s largest original equipment manufacturer customers in 2007 were Cisco (CSCO) , Honeywell (HON) , Juniper Networks (JNPR) , Northrop Grumman (NOC) and Raytheon (RTN) ; these OEMs accounted for a combined 24% of total sales. More than half of total sales were to EMS providers including my favorite, Celestica (CLS) , as well as Flextronics (FLEX) , Jabil (JBL) and Plexus (PLXS) . The diversity of customers and end markets should shield the company from short-term market share fluctuations among customers.

Here’s how the company fares in the Stock Market Beat models:

• Earnings momentum - positive


• Earnings quality - positive


• Price momentum - positive


• Free cash flow - positive


• Return potential - neutral

Disclosure: At time of publication, William Trent has no financial position in the companies mentioned in this article.