From the August IAS: Brown & Brown’s second quarter results indicate continued execution of its growth strategy. Total earnings and revenue each increased 15%, including 5% internal revenue growth with the balance coming from acquisitions. EPS expanded 12%. The company also raised $200 million in the debt market at fixed coupon rates of 5.7-6%, which management refers to as “dry powder†for future acquisitions. Going forward, the company is expecting lower internal growth, as the improving economy will fail to compensate for nationwide price declines in the commercial property insurance industry. With internal growth slowing, Brown’s success becomes more dependent on its proven ability to acquire and integrate good companies. BRO (44.75) is a buy up to 39.
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Sysco Corporation, the food wholesaler–not the manufacturer of computer routers, is another solid buy candidate. SYY is a high quality growth company.
SYY made the Forbes’ 2004 list of the 26 best managed companies in America. Value Line gives SYY its highest ratings for both financial Strength (A++) and earnings persistence (100). SYY is a large company with annual sales of more then $8 billion.
The first call consensus EPS five-year growth rate is 15%. The SSG above uses a more conservative EPS growth rate of 11.9%. Using this lower rate, projected average return over five years is 11.3% and the total return (assuming sale at a high PE) is 14.5%. The upside downside ratio is 3.7.
This would be a particularly good stock for our portfolio since it is in an industry that we don’t hold.
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Medtronic is one of two stocks to consider buying during the month of October. (The other is Health Management Associates.)
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Health Management Associates is one of two stocks to consider buying during the month of October. (The other is Medtronic.)
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What is the Portfoilio Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) Report? (Here is a recent PERT report for Moose Pond Investors.) The following description is borrowed from the NAIC Toolkit manual.
“The PERT report is the first defensive weapon in your portfolio management arsenal. This report deals with two main issues. The foremost is the trend in the companies’ performance; of lesser importance is a current value assessment of the stocks. A third item—of interest, but of least importance—is the stock’s dividend and yield. That information is found in the first and third column of the report, on either side of the company’s name.
“Columns 5 through 8 represent the heart of the PERT Report. They reveal, respectively, the percentage difference in quarterly earnings per share, quarterly pre-tax profits, quarterly sales, and the trailing 12-months’ earnings per share over the same figures for a year ago.
“While quarterly changes are not, in themselves, important enough to warrant taking some immediate action, they are significant alert signals to detect the possible onset of longer-term trends.”