This article is a reprint of my March 4, 2008 RealMoney column

When I started looking at NBTY (NTY) when it showed up on one of my screens recently, I realized a good chunk of my typical Whole Foods (WFMI - Annual Report) bill was going to their products. NBTY makes vitamins, sport supplements and other products under the brand names Nature’s Bounty, Vitamin World, Puritan’s Pride, Holland & Barrett, Rexall, Osteo-Bi-Flex, Flex-a-min, Knox, Sundown, MET-Rx, WORLDWIDE Sport Nutrition, American Health, DeTuinen, Le Naturiste, SISU, Solgar, and Ester-C.

The health food shops where I pick up my supplements (which are served through NBTY’s wholesale segment) account for nearly half the company’s total sales. The North American Retail segment (457 Vitamin World and 80 Le Naturiste shops) provided 11% of 2007 sales, European Retail (626 stores under a variety of brand names) was 31% of company revenues and the Direct Response/e-commerce segment provided 10%.

These are clearly consumer products, clearly discretionary, and clearly at risk to a consumer slowdown. Given a price of just over ten times earnings and a 10% free cash flow yield, it is also clear investors are aware of this. However, there could still be some downside given that in 2000 valuations troughed at 8.8 times earnings and 0.6 times sales.

For NBTY, the slowdown hit hard in the December 2007 quarter with flat sales and falling margins. That said, the company appears well prepared to weather a slowdown, having cut its debt load from $500 million to $210 million over the last two years. Moody’s recently upgraded its outlook to positive, which is nice for a company with high yield debt in a time of extreme credit market jitters.

The wholesale division has been the company’s strong point, with improving gross margins over the last year. The other half of the business has been poor, requiring store closings in North America. Although European retail performed relatively well in 2007, it was primarily due to currency related issues. In the first quarter, European retail sales declined 4% in local currency.

NBTY is trying to right the retail ship through its store closings and other cost saving moves. The company ended 2007 with 35 fewer stores than it started with. 71 leases are due for renewal in 2008, and the company expects to close 23 more in 2008. NBTY also plans 10 to 12 new store openings this year. In the first quarter, five stores were closed and two opened. These efforts will only be made more difficult if a recession materializes.

I have a few concerns over earnings quality. For example, in each of the last two years the company has reserved less than the actual amount charged for sales returns, bad debt and promotional incentives (an under-reserving trifecta.) However, overall earnings quality measured using the accrual ratio appears strong.

Source: Zacks Research Wizard, compiled by William A. Trent

I’m also nervous about a stock that has had such a big run over the last few weeks. But then again, I had the same concerns about Tupperware (TUP) and it has continued to outperform after rebounding from the same January low. (As a side note, American Oriental Bioengineering (AOB) could represent a catch-up play here.)

The options aren’t generating a particularly good premium right now, so there doesn’t seem much point to a put-write strategy. On the other hand, buying the March $25 puts for $0.15 (as I am writing this) seems like fairly cheap insurance on a long position, given my concerns about the recent run-up.

All in all, though NTY looks fairly cheap so do most retailers and consumer companies. Unless we can get through another quarter without a significant earnings miss or downward revision it just seems too early to call a bottom here.

Disclosures: William Trent has no positions in the stocks mentioned.

Zacks Investment Research has provided Stock Market Beat with a complimentary trial subscription to Research Wizard.

When I first became an analyst, my boss was fond of saying he’d rather have luck than brains. There are so many times, as an investor, when I have considered the understated wisdom of those words. The whole field of behavioral finance is devoted to the tricks our brains like to play on us, and there are certainly plenty of examples of cases where investors simply became too smart for their own good.

I had a little case of luck last week, when I was going to write puts on either Ceradyne (CRDN) or Verizon (VZ - Annual Report), having the capital available for only one of the trades. I chose Verizon primarily out of luck, and it has rallied nicely from the intra-day lows near which I wrote my puts, making it quite unlikely that they will be exercised against me. Meanwhile, Ceradyne lowered guidance Tuesday and lost more than 25% of its market value.

Although I have often expressed the benefits of a put-write strategy (lowering the effective price of stocks you were willing to buy anyway, or collecting a more generous yield if the stock doesn’t fall below the strike price) I thought an analysis of the Ceradyne case would offer a good illustration of the risks – and why I like the strategy even when those risks are considered.

First of all, the 25% decline in Ceradyne was going to knock put sellers or long investors regardless of any stop-loss or other strategies commonly described as “risk reduction” tools. In fact, it nicely illustrates the criticisms of the Black-Scholes option pricing model so recently discussed in Conde Nast Portfolio. Namely, the big event risks are underestimated. Only having bought puts at a lower exercise price (and thus eroding the potential returns) would have offered some protection against the sudden price drop. 

That said, does the exposure to sudden price drops invalidate the strategy? I don’t think it does, provided investors focus on the stocks that they understand and are willing to be long anyway. In fact, when I looked at the put-write on Ceradyne in December I pretty much nailed the potential risks.

“Let’s say you write a January $45 put and get your $1.60 premium. In January, the stock trades at $44 and you end up with it, at a net cost of $43.40. You immediately sell a February $45 call option for something like $1.25, bringing your net investment down to $42.15.

“Then the company announces that earnings will only be $3 a share in 2008, and the stock drops to $30. You’re down $12.15, or 27% of the money you put at risk. So much for low risk.

“On the other hand, if you compare the same transactions to buying the stocks today for $48.30 you would be $6.15 ahead of the game if you used the option strategy. So, while the risks are real, I still consider the strategy to have less risk than either owning or shorting Ceradyne outright.”

Whether simply buying a stock, or using a put-write strategy, knowing the risks is imperative. I always try to look at a disaster scenario (like the one I illustrated for Ceradyne) that is outside the limits of what most investors consider. Usually these disasters don’t occur, but they happen more often than investors like to admit. Planning for them – and mitigating them when possible – should pay off over time.

Disclosures: William Trent has written put options against the shares of Verizon (VZ - Annual Report).

photo credit: atennies94

The following article is a reprint of my February 27, 2008 RealMoney column.

A long UPS/short FDX paired trade could work, but I’d wait for a pullback to $65 before UPS would tempt me as a long-only play.

My bullish November 2007 Landstar (LSTR - Annual Report) column represents my most successful pick for RealMoney to date. The stock is up 20%, compared to a 6% decline in the S&P 500. Landstar has also outperformed CH Robinson (CHRW - Annual Report) by 9% since I predicted as much in December, and YRC Worldwide (YRCW) has underperformed the S&P by 10% since I advised looking elsewhere.

Given that my transportation picks seem to be working out better than my others, I decided to push my luck with another long-short idea. This time, I think United Parcel Service (UPS) can continue its recent outperformance relative to FedEx (FDX - Annual Report).

Two years ago, I wrote briefly about the relationship on my blog, saying:

FDX has greater operating leverage and will continue to outperform as long as the economy continues to expand and trucking capacity remains tight…. Timing this switch is the difficult part.

Over those two years, the timing has clearly happened. UPS has outperformed FedEx by about 10% since then, and by 25% in the last 12 months.

Other than the operating leverage, I think the stocks are similar enough that a long-short trade would truly offset much of the risks. Clearly the macroeconomic and industry exposures are similar.

FedEx is expected to grow slightly faster (15% compared to 13% for UPS) over the next five years and has a lower P/E multiple. But UPS generates far more free cash flow. The free cash flow yield at UPS is 5.3%, compared to just 2% at FedEx. The cash flows can be used to buy back shares, pay dividends, or make acquisitions. All of these could boost the EPS growth rate for UPS. Because of the higher yield, I think there is much less downside for UPS.

UPS also tends to have slightly higher earnings quality, on average, than FedEx. I use the accrual ratio, which measures the difference between cash earnings and accounting earnings, as a proxy for earnings quality. This ratio is less volatile for UPS and tends to be closer to zero in most periods, both of which give me more confidence in the earnings reported by UPS (though earnings quality at FedEx is by no means poor.)

Source: Zacks Research Wizard, compiled by William Trent

The differences in performance, however, are only relative. Long-only investors have been disappointed by UPS over time, with the shares trading within 10% of the current price for the last two years, and within 20% for the last five. In fact, UPS is almost exactly in the middle of its long-term trading range.

I think the future performance will remain uninspiring. The 5.3% free cash flow yield is reasonable and offers some downside protection, but is not enough to juice returns. At roughly five times book value and 16 times earnings, I don’t see a huge opportunity for expanding valuation. The tight trading range has also means there is little advantage to a put-write strategy. Low stock volatility means the March $70 puts offer just over a 1% premium. That isn’t enough for taking the risk that the stock falls to the low end of its trading range – though I’d be much more favorably disposed toward UPS if the stock pulled back to $65 or so.

For the reasons outlined above, I think a paired trade going long UPS and short FedEx could continue to work over the next few months.

Disclosures: William Trent is long Landstar (LSTR - Annual Report)

Zacks Investment Research has provided Stock Market Beat with a complimentary trial subscription to Research Wizard.

US News & World Report - Breaking News, World News, Business News, and America’s Best Colleges - USNews.com
The Housing Nightmare: Will Uncle Sam help distressed homeowners—and a hard-hit economy?

I don’t know if this article will prove to be the contrary indicator on housing, but it has many of the right hallmarks: mainstream media, cover story, major yellow journalism style headline. Will we look back and mark this as the bottom in the housing market?

I’m inclined not to think so… but it definitely gives me pause for thought.

The Semiconductor Industry Association released the January semiconductor sales report today.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors in January were $21.5 billion, a nominal increase of 0.03 percent from January 2007, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported today. Sales declined by 3.6 percent from December 2007 when the industry reported sales of $22.3 billion. SIA said the sequential decline in sales was in line with traditional seasonal patterns for the industry.

“Virtually all product lines and all geographic markets experienced slightly lower sales in January,” said SIA President George Scalise.

The good news, as I see it, is that orders for semiconductor manufacturing equipment were down 22.3% in January.  Less equipment means less capacity, and even the same amount of sales generation will soak up the excess and improve the pricing environment.

The semiconductor sales growth has exceeded semi equipment order growth since March 2007, so it is now likely to start showing up in the fundamentals. Yes, a general economic slowdown will make it harder for semi pricing to improve. But as long as the supply continues to grow at a slower rate, the semi cycle will return regardless of what happens in the business cycle.

Disclosure: William Trent is long SMH and MXIM, and has written put options against shares of LRCX.

Disclosure: William Trent has a long position in SMH.

I should probably learn to take the money and run more quickly. Back in December I wrote about Diebold (DBD) at about $33 per share and said investors should probably look elsewhere due to earnings quality concerns and what I considered to be unsustainable cash flows. That looked good until this morning, when the takeover offer from United Technologies (UTX) sent the shares up from $25 to $39.

In the interest of full disclosure, this is the third time in as many months that a takeover bid has made one of my bearish calls look stupid (at least temporarily.) In September I wrote bearish pieces on both Yahoo (YHOO) and Delta Airlines (DAL) at prices of $23.30 and $17.65, respectively. I no longer look stupid on Delta since their deal appears to have run aground.

Interestingly, of the three Delta was the only one whose management actually wanted the deal. We’ll have to see whether the Yahoo and Diebold hostile bids suffer the same fate.

Position: No financial positions in the stocks mentioned

Bankrate has asked a group of investment professionals and investment journalists to weigh in on how an investor should prepare for or invest in hard times. I was one of those who weighed in, and my frequent readers probably can figure out much of what I had to say.

What makes the article interesting is that the eight respondents really brought different perspectives to the topic. While some of the advice may contradict other parts, taken as a whole I think it really provides a balanced outlook. Any investor should be able to come away with some tips that will work for his or her own circumstances - and that’s what really counts in the end.

photo credit: Zesmerelda

This article is a reprint of my February 25, 2008 RealMoney column

What is wrong with Dean Foods (DF)? After all with everyone from Starbucks (SBUX) to Hershey’s (HSY) getting hurt by rising milk costs, I would expect the “largest processor and distributor of milk and various other dairy products in the United States” to be living in the land of milk and honey.

Yet somehow, Dean has managed to get itself on the wrong side of every dairy-related position (so much for Peter Lynch’s invest in what you know theory.) For example, the company describes the current dairy environment in its latest 10Q: “As a consequence of higher raw milk costs, we have seen a related increase in shrink costs and reduced profits from excess cream sales. At the same time, sales volumes in the Dairy Group have softened as consumers react to the higher retail prices. We are also seeing a shift from our branded fluid milk products to private label products resulting in reduced gross profit. In our White Wave segment, results continue to be negatively impacted by the oversupply of organic milk.”

High commodity costs during a period of oversupply? It is as if the law of supply and demand has been overturned. And Dean doesn’t expect to see much improvement. “As we look beyond the first quarter, we find it difficult to have much confidence in current dairy commodity forecasts given these unprecedented levels of dairy commodity market instability,” management warned.

As a result of this lack of confidence, the consensus earnings estimate for 2008 has dropped from $1.45 to $1.33 over the last month. The Zacks rank, a measure of earnings momentum, has fallen two points to the worst level of five. That rank puts Dean among the worst 5% of companies followed on the basis of earnings momentum. Yet still the estimates are well above management’s own guidance for “at least $1.20 per share.”

If there is a bright side to Dean’s horrible earnings outlook, it is that the quality of earnings remains relatively sound. The accrual ratio, which represents the difference between cash earnings and accounting earnings, should ideally hover around zero. That is more or less what Dean’s has done.

Source: Zacks Research Wizard, compiled by William Trent

So, with the earnings quality indicating that the lousy earnings are at least trustworthy, I have to ask whether the current “50% off” share price reflects all the bad news. Unfortunately, no matter how I look at it it’s hard for me to think that it does.

The P/E of 20x management’s guidance is above the company’s five-year average of 17.5x. And even being willing to look way ahead, assuming the current consensus estimate of $1.76 for 2009 doesn’t get cut and that investors are willing to pay the average multiple for them, the target price would be about $30. The potential 25% gain over 1-2 years curdles when it has to be based on so many assumptions.

The consensus five-year growth rate of 11.5% also seems incredibly optimistic, given that the same analysts are expecting a 5% sales increase this year to be followed by a modest decline next year. And even assuming the 11.5% growth occurs due to margin expansion, I’d expect much of it to be eroded by a contracting valuation given Dean’s outlandish 63x price/book ratio. Considering that total return is a function of growth and the change in valuation, I think the two would offset each other in this case, perhaps resulting in annual total return in the mid single digits.

Finally, my favorite measure is the free cash flow yield, and Dean looks far from attractive on this basis. On either a free cash flow to equity or a free cash flow to enterprise basis, the yield comes to about 4%. True, it is better than the current yield on 5-year Treasuries. But given the risks involved, I think there are many more attractive opportunities.

In fact, either of the other two victims of milk pricing look far better to me. Starbucks could have a 6% free cash flow yield based on its plans to slow expansion (and related expenditures) while Hershey’s is already at a 6.7% free cash flow yield.

Long story short, I think Dean’s chairman is on the right track by selling shares.

Disclosures: William Trent owns shares of Starbucks (SBUX)

Zacks Investment Research has provided Stock Market Beat with a complimentary trial subscription to Research Wizard.

Hansen Natural (HANS) is giving back the last month’s gains today after reporting higher than expected sales and lower than expected margins. Both were explained by customers stocking up ahead of a price increase. Count on the same thing happening to Hershey’s (HSY) when they report a March quarter enhanced by customer stock-ups and an early Easter.

While it’s true that the sales were boosted by robbing sales from next quarter, that is a short term issue. I said last month that “Hansen should be able to maintain its current free cash flow yield as long as the company keeps growing, which suggests potential upside in line with the 30% growth rate this year. Unless the growth rate slows substantially, it looks like a keeper.”

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Disclosure: William Trent has no position in the companies mentioned.

Dean Foods (DF) announced this morning they would sell 18.7 million shares in a secondary offering. The 13% dilution is expected to be “significantly offset” by a $20 million reduction in interest expense. At current prices, the company should raise nearly $400 million through the sale. $20 million is 5% of that - so “significant” seems to be in the eye of the beholder.

Even better, the offering comes because “operating results were below the expectations we had when we recapitalized the balance sheet last March.” By Dean’s logic, apparently, you should issue debt to pay shareholders when the shares are $45 and issue shares to pay off debt if the shares are $21. And I thought they only got on the wrong side of every dairy position. They are wrong on market positions as well.

Dean also reiterated their guidance, which (as I had noted in my article) was below the consensus estimate. I guess we now know why.

If there is any bullish read on this story at all, it is the possibility for a brief relief rally after the secondary closes and the overhang clears on March 5.

Disclosure: William Trent has no position in the companies mentioned.