Both EQNX & CHSE sound interesting. I guess whoever is combing through posts 151-200 will have some DD to do! :)
I recently came across a few picks while going through a Canadian investment advisory called Investor's Digest. One of the most intriguing was Kasten Chase (TSE: KCA, trading at $1.00). Recommended by a newsletter called Outsider's Overture, Bellingham, WA. KCA failed in a takeover bid for Gandalf (later scooped up by Mitel). They provide data communications, hardware, and software to the financial industry--primarily, Dow Jones Telerate. Long term grower...acquisition program...VERY CHEAP stock price due to failed takeover bid, flat 1997 revenues, and small-cap techs in general getting pounded. It's a value pick, not exciting, but CHEAP.
Kasten Chase Applied Research
SI thread Subject 15011
From the company home page at kastenchase.com, a bit about their products for postal operations...they are a diversified co.
Postal Monitoring
Postal administrations throughout the world are under intense
competitive pressures to improve service. Customers are
demanding tighter delivery schedules amid the trend toward
globalization increased mail volumes. The first step in improving
service is to gather accurate information on mail flows,
traditionally difficult and costly to obtain. However, without
route-specific information it is difficult to improve and optimize the distribution system. Kasten Chase has developed advanced mail tracking systems for postal monitoring, using its Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) technology. Kasten Chase Automatic Mail
Quality Measurement (AMQM), the world's only fully
operational system, has been deployed for international and
domestic use within the International Post Corporation, Post
Denmark, Post The Netherlands, Norway Post, Sweden Post,
and Royal Mail.
Monitoring International Mail Delivery
As customers demanded higher levels of service, the International
Post Corporation (IPC), comprising 21 European and North
American postal administrations, resolved to improve quality and
speed of delivery between its member countries. Working with
Nordic postal administrations, Kasten Chase developed a
cost-effective mail tracking system. In 1996, the IPC standardized on this system to evaluate delivery performance and determine stamp revenue sharing. Ultra-thin electronic devices,
indistinguishable from ordinary letters, are seeded into
international mail flows on a statistically valid basis. Travelling through sorting facilities, they pass electronic readers which retrieve encoded ifnormation, building a profile for objective
measurement of each country's mail delivery. Under the IPC rules,
postal administrations not operating to standard will suffer financial penalties. Over the past year, Kasten Chase installed the IPC AMQM system at more than 65 locations in 17 European
countries. In addition,several domestic administrations are now
installing this solution to monitor internal mail flows and identify obstacles to quality.
Financials (from Investor's digest, based on $0.85 stock price)
Interim Price/Book: 1.62
Interim Price/Sales: 1.17
1997 EPS: breakeven
1998? expect revenue growth, new contracts, solid earnings...EPS numbers should be magnified due to recent share buyback.
$13 million in bank
Long term this company has grown remarkably but this year revenues were basically flat. I understand that the future is bright, however.
Shares outstanding, about 37 million, hard to get a bead on it however, should be an update on that soon.
Stock qualifies as a bargain with a solid balance sheet and market cap only $37 million. Not a "flashy" high growth story, but I see an easy double from here, and a possible 10 bagger in the making.
More info--"business has not gone away, has just been deferred, says an analyst at Yorkton Securities". Yet the stock is valued as if the business has gone away.
STORY courtesy Canada Stockwatch:
The Globe and Mail reports in a Reality Check in its Saturday edition that Yorkton Securities analyst Mark Pavan picked Kasten Chase Applied Research as a buy last October, when the stock traded in the $2 range. Reporter Susanne Craig notes the stock now trades at $1.85. Mr Pavan sticks by his call, saying that better days are ahead for Kasten. Mr Pavan said a year ago that Kasten would experience a sharp increase in sales and earnings over the next two fiscal years as it diversified its client base and made inroads into the enormous remote access
market. While sales have increased somewhat at Kasten over the past year, it has not been enough to drive the stock anywhere near Mr Pavan's one-year target. He still has a buy on the stock, however, with a one-year target of $5. Mr Pavan now says the company has experienced delays on a number of key orders and, as a result, some anticipated revenues have not materialized. He says the business
has not gone away, but it has just been deferred, and the company has made significant progress in other areas. The stock's 52-week range is $1.75 to $4.20.
(c) Copyright 1997 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com |
