Paul, on SEMI: The 4 biggest problems for the stock from my point of view are a totally discouraged shareholder base, a family mgmt that actually is OK but does not spend time doing anything promoting the stock, the obvious high debt/equity ratio, and lack of a big-6 acctg firm (and the possibility that I have commented on that they may have a too generous variable compensation plan that eats up too much of additional gross margin dollars from increased sales).
I think the total capitalization/sales, total capitalization/gross margin, price/tangible book, price/net-net (about 75%) make up for this. You don't get these things without blemishes. Also, as I have posted, I suspect some other, larger distributor will get around to them before Wall Street does in this consolidating industry, where SEMI is probably the largest independent distributor of semiconductors, a much more fashionable category than a year ago.
However, because of the negatives mentioned I don't think you have to be aggressive on the stock.
To add some perspective, on a scale of 1-10, I would rate NH at 9, which we all discussed, a 10, EBSC at 6, which Jim has plugged, an 8.5, SEMI at 3 1/2 a 6.5, and ELTX at 3 1/2, which I mentioned casually yesterday (and is not a traditional value stock) a 4. |
