I like to bring up an interesting company that I ran across the other day (yes I am _already_ long the stock with purchase yesterday and today). The company is Trico Marine (TMAR). There is a thread at SI dealing with TMAR alone, but I thought it might be worthwhile mentioning it here.
The other day Briefing.com said this:
TRICO MARINE SERVICES (TMAR) 18 +1/8. The company's 4-cents better-than-expected 4th qtr net has done very little for TMAR shares this morning. The less than spectacular performance of the stock can be blamed on a oilfield drilling/services sector that is experiencing another round of profit-taking following a sharp run-up over the past two weeks. In fact, TMAR is one of the few names in the entire group that is actually trading to the upside. For those not familiar with the oilfiled stocks, these issues move in tandem and have recently been very sensitive to crude commodity prices. Because of this "buy-them-all or sell-them-all" mentality, not even the company's 69% year-over-year improvement in EPS has been able to move the stock meaningfully higher on the session. For the period, the marine support services company reported net income of $0.61 million, on revenues of $41.6 million, compared to $0.36 and $20.6 million, respectively, reported for the year-ago period. The company said its much improved results were primarily attributable to the expansion of its fleet of vessels from acquisitions in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, and the increase in the average vessel day rates for all of the company's vessel classes. Based a First Call survey of 9 analysts, TMAR is expected to earn $2.91 a share for 1998, giving the stock an astoundingly cheap P/E of 6.18. That's right, a P/E of 6.18 for a company that is expected to grow earnings by 38% a year. They don't get much cheaper than this.
Business Overview from Baseline
Trico Marine Services supports oil and gas companies that need to get workers, equipment, and supplies to sites in the US portion of the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Brazil. To this end, it owns and operates the 3rd largest supply fleet in the Gulf with 65 vessels. The fleet comprises supply boats, crew boats, lift boats (used to construct, remove, and service drilling platforms), and line-handling boats (for transferring oil from a platform to a tanker). Although the company's main market is in the Gulf, it also has a long-term charter contract with Petrobras, the Brazilian national oil company. Trico bought Norway-based Saevik Supply ASA, which services rigs in the North Sea in December.
Franklin Partners owns 1.88 million shares.
Franklin Partners = Michael Price
TMAR - Trico Marine reported another outstanding quarter Tuesday. Trico has consistantly beat analysts estimates by 3 to 7 cents per share in _every_ quarter since it went public in May 1996. Earnings of 80 cents/share in 1996 were topped this year with $2.11 and estimates for 1998 are for $2.90.
Here is the thread devoted to TMAR:
exchange2000.com
Conference call number is 888-8889538
From the conference call and other resources, the recent acquisition of Saevik will add 30-35% of revenue and cash flow to the operations. Day rates are firm to increasing and utilization rates will be going up as extensive use of drydock repair facilities in 1997 and 1st quarter of 1998 are finished.
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Dave |
