Pulling My Hair Out In Disbelief!
Pardon me while I get on my soapbox. This one really has me baffled.
I'll spare the balance sheet rundown, (but if anyone wants any numbers, just ask), and get to it.
The company is doing wonderfully. Earnings are great, business is
great. So, the stock is barely up???????????? It is trading at a
current year P/E of 8.5.
Now, before anyone says, "yeah, but Samsung did this" or "Toshiba did that", or any of that other stuff, let me give you one fact:
NONE of WFR's customers have backed off one penny from the "customer
capacity guarantee" program which I have written about at least three
times before. In aggregate, WFR's current customers have committed
$120MILLION in capital for WFR to build additional capacity. I was
recently told WFR has received "over $50 million" of that money and
have it in hand. The remaining is being paid in scheduled deposits
over the next "3-4 quarters."
Folks, name me ONE just ONE other company on this planet that has
CUSTOMERS GIVING them money to build more capacity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not only are these companies NOT going out of business themselves, they are confident enough in the future need of more silicon to
buck up NOW to make sure WFR has enough capacity to deliver product
to them in the future! This is not B.S. . I wrote it, it is here as
public record, and I stand behind it.
What does it take? Do we REALLY need to get Rodney Dangerfield out here in St. Peters, MO. to have him filmed with WFR employees handing
them rolls of 100's & saying "Here, buy yourself another plant. You
got kids? Here, make sure they have a nice place to work, too. Oh, yeah, and don't forget to get the wife something nice on the way home, too."
My good friend Thomas Bahn owns a fine establishment here in St. Louis called "Cousin Hugo's". They serve great food. But as much as I like his place, I cannot see me giving him a barrell of money to build another kitchen just to make sure I'll be able to get a sandwhich when I want to eat my lunch.
This kind of thing just does NOT happen in today's world. But it happens at MEMC.
Regards,
Doug |
