Nasdaq symbol..."OCCF"
Zacks List
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Ticker Magazine - December, 1997
There are many ways to track down undervalued stocks poised for price appreciation. One approach: Focus on companies with
relatively little "sponsorship:" those receiving scant coverage from Wall Street analysts, mutual fund managers, pension-plan
managers, and other investment pros. For the most part, these folks move in packs, jumping on the same companies and triggering
substantial stock-price movement in their stocks.
But a fertile group of companies lacks sponsorship. Although those companies comprise a cross section of industries and sectors,
almost all of them have something in common: management more focused on building business than courting institutional interest.
Our thesis is simple: If these companies eventually garner greater institutional interest, their shares will be in hot demand. So getting their stocks first is
worth the effort.
To pull this list together, we first screened for companies with less than 10% of their shares in institutional hands. Then, to knock out the losers, we set the
bar high: Each of these companies has boosted sales at least 25% annually for the past five years. We also threw out the smallfry companies with market
caps of less than $100 million, which may never appear on institutional radars no matter how well they perform. And the outcome? The list below presents
undersponsored companies with bright prospects.
Why are some of these companies undersponsored? Circumstances vary from company to company. Some organizations, such as National Vision,
Triangle Bancorp, and West Teleservices, appear in our screen because they are profitable if plain-old boring, lacking the technological pizzazz so many of
today's money managers crave. Happy hunting! $$$
COMPANY
TICKER
SYMBOL
MARKET
CAP.
(10/14/97)
PRICE
1988 ESTMATED
E.P.S.
1998
P/E
5 YEAR SALES
GROWTH RATE%
INSTITUTIONAL
% HELD
TELEPHONE
NUMBER
A
Optical Cable
OCCF
510
12.62
0.34
37.1
22
0.9
540-265-0690
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