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Strategies & Market Trends : Stock Watcher's Thread / Pix of the Week (POW) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Stock Watcher who wrote (4454)3/18/1999 9:44:00 AM
From: RCJIII  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 52051
 
Chaus is up .25, a very favorable report was just issued on BizFN.

Here it is:

Research Report issued by the 3 Amigos on BizFN. Check out the fundamentals of this company.

Bernard Chaus, Inc.

By The Three Amigos
Email: sheiber@esslink.com

March 17, 1999

Small Cap Forum Newsletter

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Bernard Chaus, Inc. (CHS)

NYSE: CHS
Recent Price: $1.75
Shares Outstanding: 27.1 M
Float: 7.60 M
6 Month Target Price: $7+

General Description:

Bernard Chaus, Inc. is a leading designer and manufacturer of women's career and casual sportswear. Their products are found in the nation's leading department stores, including Federated, May's and Dillard's. Chaus was founded in 1975 and had its IPO in 1986. It trades on the New York Stock Exchange.

Briefing:

I believe this is one of the best small-cap investment opportunities in the market today for the aggressive, yet rational investor. They are amassing a consistent record of profitability. Chaus earned .28 per share last year. For the first two months of the current fiscal year CHS earned a combined .15 per share in operating income.

In a recent conference call Management confirmed .45 per share as their forecast for earnings for the current fiscal year ending this June. This forecast was again confirmed by their CFO on March 9th. At its current price of $1.75, that would give CHS a PE of 3.8 on this year's earnings!

Since Chaus earned .28 per share last year, if they meet current year forecasts, net income will have grown by 61% yet the stock will be trading at a PE of under 4.

Sales for this year should approximate $200 million. That provides a Price to Sales ratio of .27.

Even if the stock quadrupled in price, valuations would be reasonable with a PE of just over 15 and a Price to Sales ratio of just over 1 to 1.

History:

In 1997 management began a massive turnaround. Chaus was losing several dollars a share, sales were declining and debt was mounting. Management initiated a corporate restructuring in which the company's largest shareholder and current CEO exchanged debt for equity, greatly increasing her share of ownership. This restructuring significantly reduced debt, and interest expense. It cleaned up the balance sheet, provided necessary working capital and extended borrowing capacity.

As part of its restructuring, Chaus initiated a plan to return the company to profitability. As part of this plan, Chaus closed down nearly all unprofitable outlet stores and terminated its money losing licensing agreement with Nautica. Management then refocused their efforts on revitalizing their core CHAUS brand.

Over the past two years management's efforts have really paid off. In June of this year the company will report its second year in a row of strong sustainable profits. Their Balance Sheet is clean and shows positive working capital of $22.6 million as of December 1998. Sales for the Core CHAUS brand have increased dramatically, while money losing operations and low margin sales have been eliminated.

Recent Events:

The company recently announced the launching of a new division focusing on two new lines of casual sportswear. These lines will be available in stores in the Fall of 1999. Early response from buyers has been very positive for these two new lines and they are poised to contribute significantly to the bottom line going forward.

The company recently announced the launching of an Investor Relations Website at BernardChaus.com. It is an impressive site with lots of valuable corporate information and easy shareholder access to management to ask questions or make requests.

Coming Events:

1) Sales-
March is the month in which many apparel makers start booking sales for the Fall 1999 season. Chaus will begin the process of selling their traditional lines as well as their new lines this month. If wholesale orders go as well as the initial response from buyers, a substantial increase in sales could ensue. Also, a buzz could be created that could really move the stock. In past selling seasons, the stock price has more than doubled based on positive word from these wholesale sales efforts.

2) Advertising-
The company has hired an advertising firm and will soon launch a major ad campaign. The large increase in sales of the core Chaus line occurred with no advertising at all. A major ad campaign should boost brand recognition, sales and hopefully the stock price. We may see a press release providing details of the advertising campaign in the near future.

3) The Website-
The company is currently considering on-line sales. It is only in the consideration stage at this point and may never occur, but if they decide to sell on-line the stock price could explode.

4) Department Stores-
The company currently sells in around 600 department store "doors" around the US. 1500 "doors" suitable for selling Chaus clothing exist in the US. Management's focus for the coming year will be to penetrate as many new "doors" as possible.

Significant growth prospects exist. If the Core Chaus line continues its rapid sales increases and if the two new lines do well, Chaus will have no trouble greatly expanding the number of "doors" in which their clothes are sold.

Technical Picture:

The one year chart for CHS looks pretty disappointing. The stock has been in a downtrend since the reverse split over a year ago. The stock appears to have bottomed out at current levels and has formed a base from which to rise. Recent activity has the stock price crossing its 13 day moving average. The 50 day moving average resides at around $2. If the stock breaks $2, the next resistance level is around $4.

As favorable fundamental developments continue to unfold, I believe the technical picture will improve in the near future. Companies don't grow earnings at 60% a year and maintain a PE ratio of 4 on the NYSE for very long.

Other Factors:

Josephine Chaus, the Current CEO and co-founder owns over 70% of the company. Her interests are therefore closely aligned with shareholders' interests. She is rumored to be exploring several options for increasing shareholder value.

The company is a prime takeover candidate. At current valuations a suitor could offer a significant premium to shareholders without overpaying for the company.

Conclusion:

I believe CHS could be a massive winner in the coming weeks, months and years. Continued growth in sales of the existing Core Chaus lines, new sales from the new launched clothing lines, the coming advertising campaign and continued strong earnings releases should be the catalysts for major stock price appreciation both near term and long term.







To: Stock Watcher who wrote (4454)3/18/1999 10:04:00 AM
From: Edward Larkin  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 52051
 
Advest published a new update on CMED on March 12th.

Analyst Tom Moro raised price target to $20 and increased Eps ESTIMATE for fiscal 1999 (June) to 62 cents, and Fiscal 2000 to .92 cents.

CMED has a 99 EPS rating per IBD.



To: Stock Watcher who wrote (4454)3/18/1999 11:46:00 AM
From: Francois Goelo  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 52051
 
S W, This is a repost of why I just added 5000 shares of VXCH...

OK Jeff, no more excuses about VXCH: I'll have to bill InvestRight..

for my time and phone expenses (13 minutes).

I talked to Mrs Sievers, Director of Investor's Relations and she confirmed my earlier scenario to the dot. Bankers have been banging on their door to lend them money ever since the story about Max.pc came out. News about closing of financial package will be issued before month's end.

There will be enough money (would not say exactly how much and I can't blame her, since it's not yet in the public domain) to retire their convertible package and do a powerful marketing campaign.

The product could conceivably end up in most people's home who have a PC, as it is not only intended for corporate use, but also as a means of enhanced video communication, period. As this was not enough, they have a very helpful and well constructed Web site:

maxpc.com

I don't know about you, but I am adding 3000+ shares to my existing position. Target: $10.00 within 3 months. Actually, I won't bill you for my expenses, I'll take 10% of your net profit for having made me work so hard. Fair enough?

Regards, F. Goelo+ + +

PS: even Stock Watcher, who prides himself as being a very conservative watcher more than anything else has the stock on his Index. What do you say to that??

God, I almost forgot: out. 8Mil. and Float 2Mil. Talk about icing on the cake!





To: Stock Watcher who wrote (4454)3/18/1999 1:55:00 PM
From: Dave Gore  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 52051
 
ALL: the SYCD PR MAILING STARTS MONDAY. This mailing and the Disney remake of the biggest grossing movie of all time..... "Princess Minoki" (a Japanese Animation movie which made $2.9 BILLION in asia), for the U.S. MARKET, should really help propel SYCD and animation sales. Incidentally Japanese Animation programs on the Cartoon Network are already among the most watched in the U.S.

They are snail mailing it primarily as most post ignore email these days. I agree.

**** A COUPLE FACTS ***
It shows massive U.S. Anime growth from about 25 mil in 1993 to $110 mil in 1995 to
$225 in 1997 to $500 mil (projected) by 2001.

SYCD has a goal of 15% sales growth per MONTH. So far they have been doing it in
the last several months.

The Wholesale site is doing well, too, as they have increased their dealer client base
from 700 to 1100 since November, 1988 to Jan 1999.
Revenues have increased 30% in that short period.

Deals with Orion Pitures, MGM, and Bandai recently
Disney re-make of the biggest grossing movie of all time to be released in the U.S. this
year.

LONG TERM DEBT: $0
SHARES O/S: 9.0 mil
FLOAT: 2.15 mil
TRAILING SALES: $890,000 last year.

Call Geoff Eiten for details








To: Stock Watcher who wrote (4454)3/18/1999 2:26:00 PM
From: Francois Goelo  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 52051
 
S W, XNET has kindly sent a list of corrections to my previous posts...

Following my request to the management, this communication arrived via e-mail to correct any error or misconception which occurred in my previous discussion about XNET.

1. Microsoft did not directly place an ad, it was done by Federal Software, the largest software distributor in China, advertising Microsoft products.

2. We are not profitable because of IP telephone, our revenue at this point is mainly derived from ISP activities.

3. Home Page Portal is exactly what it means, Xin Hai has a Home Page with links to various other sites. We want to attract users to use the Home Page (with our own content) as the Portal to the Web, the objective is to build traffic.

4. MOFTEC is Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Development, it has nothing to do with Internet licenses, the local telephone and
telecommunications authorities do.


Thank you Mr Cheung for helping us understand what your Company is all about.

Regards, F. Goelo + + +





To: Stock Watcher who wrote (4454)3/18/1999 2:34:00 PM
From: mike.com  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 52051
 
IATV news news news:
biz.yahoo.com
biz.yahoo.com
fnews.yahoo.com

The stock is bouncing very nicely off an oversold position and the combination of these 3 news articles will help propel a bounce.



To: Stock Watcher who wrote (4454)3/18/1999 4:45:00 PM
From: Norm Demers  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 52051
 
Sold OMKT today 3rd time. (made money every time) Bought SDTI again, screaming buy here. Analyst upgrade nordby.com

ncipher news:
biz.yahoo.com