Steve, would you believe - possibly FARO. It does not remotely belong on a Value Investing thread any more, and clearly has short term price risk. However, anyone who listened to the recent one hour conference call (on which yours truly participated) and did not come away with the view that FARO may become the Microsoft of its industry niche wasn't listening.
They are now forecasting about $.70 as the EPS midpoint for 2004 (after a higher tax rate) up from about $.50 for this year.
On Yahoo, I posted 10-bagger potential in March at $2.30; in May at $6+ I posted $100 over 5-10 years. This week I plan to put out a new long term outlook which will be higher. FARO is the best COMPANY I have run across since COO in the mid-90's. It has the key ingredients that I look for - durable competitive advantage, high gross margins, and management with unquestioned competence, experience and integrity (and hopefully no coverage or institutional ownership to speak of).
Of course, there are lots of great companies. but most of them are well known, widely held and without exceptional potential.
By the way, don't feel too bad. I recommended FARO for entrance into the Value Investor's Club (http://www.valueinvestorsclub.com/) at $7.61. I was accepted, after the stock had risen more, and it took some courage to recommend it to the general membership at around $10.20, with a very extensive writeup (now available, I believe, through Guest Access). The idea got a horrible 2.5 of 10 rating, but has had the best performance of anything since. |
