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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Senior who wrote (15886)	1/11/2003 12:42:51 PM
From: - with a K	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78476

>> I started an exploratory position in HELE today. Great call, Paul. I had done extensive DD in late October when HELE was under $9. Today I was looking through my notes after the nice news and strong gap up this week; I had them on the top of my list titled "My Best Ideas." But I never bought! FWIW, I seem to do more studying than buying, compared to what I pick up from your posts. Anyway, I'm tempted to take a position in HELE even after the small run, based on my analysis. I estimate a FV at $29, but I hate chasing a stock after a sharp run. Any thoughts? Snip from Thursday's PR: Third quarter sales increased to $142,998,000 from sales of $141,788,000 for the same period of the prior year. Net income for the third quarter increased 29 percent to a record $16,791,000 from $12,967,000 in the previous year's third quarter. Third quarter earnings per share increased 30 percent to 57 cents per diluted share, from 44 cents per diluted share. CEO: "We are certainly pleased with our record results for the third quarter and nine months. The third quarter is usually our largest quarter of the year, in terms of net sales. We believe that the third quarter's record results reflect our strength in the marketplace. "Brands leading the sales increases in our North American segment were Vidal Sassoon, Revlon, Dr. Scholl Massagers, and Wave Rage. The Professional division also continues to contribute double digit sales increases led by our Hot Tools and Wigo brands. Product sales in the United Kingdom and France led sales growth in the international segment. We are also pleased with the contribution from the six consumer brands we acquired during the current quarter from The Procter & Gamble Company. Helen of Troy sales increased 10 percent to $124 million for the quarter, which included sales from the six brands acquired from The Procter & Gamble Company. This increase more than offset the decline in Tactica's product sales in the direct response sales channel. Tactica sales for the quarter were $19 million, in line with our expectations. "Gross margins for the quarter increased to 45.7 percent from 45.3 percent for the prior year. SG&A expenses declined for the quarter to 31.1 percent of net sales from 33.5 percent for the prior year's quarter. Operating margins improved significantly to 14.6 percent this quarter from 11.7 percent for the third quarter last year. We are increasing our earnings per share expectations for fiscal year 2003, ending February 28, 2003, to $1.25 to $1.30 from our previously announced guidance range of $1.15 to $1.20. This represents a 25 to 30 percent increase from fiscal year 2002. "At the January 2003 International Housewares show in Chicago, Helen of Troy will introduce over 70 new personal care products. Ion and Ceramic technologies are the foundations of our new product innovations for the coming year. We are using cutting-edge technology features from our professional products and incorporating them into products for the consumer market. At very reasonable consumer retail pricing, we are producing products that we believe, feature by feature, are superior to that of the competition," Rubin concluded. On January 6, 2003, the Company announced a new thirty year licensing agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company for the Vidal Sassoon® brand name. This licensing agreement encompasses various product categories including hair care appliances, home hair clippers, brushes, combs and hair care accessories.