Dale,
Thanks for your guidance on NFI.
I found the following on MSN about WLT:
Walter Industries' stock quietly soars
The company gets little attention, in part because it's in three different businesses. But each sector is seeing strong demand.
12:13 PM EST May 25, 2005
by Jerry Cobb
What do coal mining, ductile iron pipe and new home lending and construction have in common? Not much, except that Tampa, Fla.-based Walter Industries (WLT, news, msgs) is in all three businesses.
"We have been a difficult company to understand, no doubt about it," says Don DeFosset, the company's chairman, president and chief executive. "Those people that do take their time and do the homework and understand our company I think have been rewarded."
Banking on coal
Indeed, Walter Industries' shares have tripled over the last 12 months, hitting a high of $47.80 in March. What's the main reason for the increase? Soaring prices for specialized metallurgical coal used in steel production. Walter Industries pulls more than 6 million tons of it a year out of three deep underground mines in central Alabama, and plans to boost capacity another 50% by 2009.
"It's our view that even if you were to get a fairly dramatic decline in steel production in the industrialized economies, Japan, North America, the EU, for example, the growth in China and some of the other developing countries should continue to support a healthy level of demand," says Barbara Allen, who follows the company at Avondale Partners. |
