Ice, re: TSRI and MAST
These two companies are in the same biz, programming
with an emphasis on Y2K conversion, but they do it in
different ways. If I'm reading their financials correctly,
MAST appears to be a standard contractor who is consulted
on a large-scale project basis, and they have some good clients
like Oracle. TSRI does this as well, but also farms out individual
programmers like a talent pool agency.
I know a few people that independently consult through agencies
like these. They generally make 30%-40% more than a 'regular'
programmer employee. The agency gets a chunk of that for doing
nothing other than making a phone call to get the indie programmer
and the customer hooked up. It's about as close as one can get to
'free money' with virtually zero expenses.
MAST looks good. I do like the way MAST is really tackling the global
market with the new offices they've opened in Asia and Australia.
But if I had to pick one, I think TSRI is stronger:
1. TSRI generates 1/3 as much revenue as MAST ($43m vs. $132m).
But TSRI manages to do that with only 1/7 of the employees
(242 vs. 1615). That's the kind of efficiency that gets me excited.
2. MAST has 7x the outstanding shares of TSRI (22m vs. 3m). Yet, only
double the average daily trading volume (63k vs 29k). TSRI is clearly
a more 'active' stock and that should be of interest to the short-term
traders -- the stock is can have to big 'ups'; 34% friday, 23% the day
before. Of course, you can get big downs, too. Put the power of limit
orders to use here.
3. The respective ROE figures for MAST and TSRI are 11% and 17%.
Trailing 12 month earnings were .21 and .52
This is probably more interesting to the long-termers. TSRI just
looks more efficient to me when examining its tiny size, and
how it stacks up to MAST. Also, MAST P/E is 107 vs. 38 for TSRI.
I know a lot of people debate P/E's worth as an indicator, but
how does MAST justify 107 with such an efficient eager beaver
competitor hanging around.
Check out:
biz.yahoo.com
Having said that, with TSRI jumping 34% and 23% on two successive
days (the gap-up you mentioned), Monday may not be the best day
to buy. I don't have any money, so I am free of the worry. You could
buy both, and dump one later. =)
and FWIW, Mac networks are immune to the Y2K problem. They do,
however, have a Y30K problem. Imagine when it is no longer 1997
or 1998, but instead 30,000. Those Macs are built to last!
-MrB |
