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Roper has frequently made Forbes' Best 200 Small Companies in America list. I've owned shares off and on for several years now and have so far never lost money on a trade. The company has 3 business segments: Fluid Handling, Analytical Instruments, and Compressors & Controls. These divisions serve the semiconductor, oil & gas, and medical industries, to name a few. ROP's mode of operations is to buy small companies in complementary business segments, and to buy them cheap and squeeze the profits out as it competes on the basis of price and value in niche markets. One downside is that the company does considerable business with Russian energy giant Gazprom, and the flow of orders is vulnerable to political whims. Major orders have been postponed at least 3 times during the last several years as a result of Gazprom's politically-based financing problems. |
