Update On Thor Industries

Thor Industries $THO is the world's largest manufacturer of recreation vehicles and a major builder of commercial buses. I first mentioned Thor back in January 2009 when it was trading at $13.50 per share. The stock was used as an example of a company that the seasoned value investor Walter Schloss might pick if he were still picking stocks on a professional basis. Schoss had a very impressive track record during his years managing money. He was also a part of Ben Graham's alumni. The stock has had an impressive run this year. I believe the stock price has gotten a little ahead of itself. They just announced today that they were making a special one time payout of 50 cents per share on their dividend. This is in addition to their quarterly payout of 7 cents per share. This is probably why the stock price ran up today. 10 months ago this stock traded at around 1X book value, where as now it trades for 2.3 book. Management still holds a big stake in this company at 39%, which is a plus, and aligns them with shareholders. The company still has a nice cash cushion of over 328 million with NO debt and free cash flow. All good looking figures for any value investor on the lookout for a new business to allocate money in. In fact Warren Buffett bought a similar business Forest River back in 2005, it to had NO debt. It would not suprize me if Buffett or another company would come in and buy this company outright. While I still feel that this is a very well managed company and things are looking up, the margin of safety is not where it was 10 months ago. *Author does not currently have position in $THO

Posted via email from stockmanmarc's posterous

Cash Is King For These Lucky 7

As I wrote a few weeks ago, that while we are in a down economy look for stocks that hold lots of cash and very little to NO debt. Some of you might say, why not just hold cash, isn't this better. Well certainly in the short term it is, but over a longer period your cash will be eaten up by inflation. How about Bonds? Well bonds may pay a better rate than cash and what I mean by cash is in short term instruments, 2 years and under. I have added a few more cash rich companies to my existing list.

The Buckle(BKE) operates as a retailer of casual apparel, footwear, and accessories for young men and women in the United States. The company’s casual apparel products include denims, bottoms, tops, sportswear, and outerwear. As of February 2, 2008, it operated 368 retail stores under the ‘Buckle’ and ‘The Buckle’ brand names. The company was founded in 1948. It was formerly known as Mills Clothing, Inc. and changed its name to The Buckle, Inc. in 1991. The Buckle is headquartered in Kearney, Nebraska.

Here's what they are saying over at the Street.com.

• Market Cap 1.08 bil.
  
• Revenue 748mil.
  
• CASH 118MIL.
  
• NO DEBT
  
• Mgmt. owns 50%
  
• Small cap specialist Royce & Associates holds 5% stake.
  

Forest Laboratories(FRX) together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells branded and generic forms of ethical drug products, and non-prescription pharmaceutical products.

• Market Cap 7.7bil.
  
• Revenue 3.85bil.
  
• CASH 1.9bil.
  
• NO DEBT
  
• Value Investor Bruce Burkowitz and Fairholme Capital Mgmt. holds 6% stake.
  

Garmin(GRMN) and its subsidiaries design, develop, manufacture, and market global positioning system (GPS)-enabled products and other related navigation, communications, and information products worldwide.

• Market Cap 3.4bil.
  
• Revenue 3.6bil.
  
• CASH 540mil.
  
• NO DEBT
  
• Mgmt. owns 43%
  
• The Davis Funds the company that legendary investor Shelby Davis started in 1947 holds a 2.6% stake.
  

LoopNet(LOOP) operates an online marketplace for commercial real estate in the United States. Its online marketplace, LoopNet.com enables commercial real estate agents working on behalf of property owners and landlords to list properties for sale or for lease by submitting detailed property listing information, including descriptions, financial and tenant information, photographs, and property characteristics in order to find a buyer or tenant.

Here is what they are saying over at the Fool.com.

• Market Cap 240mil.
  
• Revenue 85mil.
  
• CASH 69mil.
  
• NO DEBT
  
• Mgmt. owns 18%
  
• Small cap specialist Royce & Associates holds 2.6% stake.
  

Microsoft Corporation(MSFT) provides software products for computing devices worldwide. Its Client segment offers Windows product family that comprises Windows Vista; Windows XP Professional and Home; Media Center Edition; Tablet PC Edition; and other Windows operating systems.

Here's the scoop over @ Valueplays

• Market Cap 168bil.
  
• Revenue 62bil.
  
• CASH 20bil.
  
• debt 2bil.
  
• Mgmt. owns 13.3%(Bill Gates 8.5%)
  

Nam Tai Electronics(NTE) provides electronics manufacturing and design services to the telecommunications and consumer electronic products original equipment manufacturers.

This is what they are saying over at the Fool.com.

Market Cap 202mil.

Revenue 640mil.

CASH 250MIL.

debt 8.19mil

Mgmt. owns 17%

Kahn Brothers Group holds 3.84% stake. Kahn Brothers Group was started by Irving Kahn who was a teaching assistant under Benjamin Graham.

Small cap specialist Royce & Associates holds 5% stake.

Syneron Medica(ELOS) together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and markets aesthetic medical products based on its ELOS technology to provide aesthetic medical treatments.

• Market Cap 197mil.
  
• Revenue 139mil.
  
• CASH 120MIL.
  
• no debt
  
• Deep Value Investor Seth Klarman of the Baupost Group owns 10% stake
  
• Small cap specialist Royce & Associates holds 2.66% stake.

Author long Msft

Cash In The Coffers & NO Debt!

While scouting for prospective stocks, keep in mind that companies that have plenty of cash on hand with very little or NO debt have a much better chance of weathering the economic slow down. 

These seven diverse companies listed below seem to have this in common: plenty of cash, none or 

very little debt and management has a stake in the business. Most of these stocks are trading at a

 third to a half of their fifty-two week high. 

AVX Corp. (AVX) - A leading Worldwide Manufacturer and Supplier of Electronic

 Components. Its products are used in electronic devices to store, filter, and regulate electric energy.

Korn Ferry  (KFY) -  Since its founding in 1969, Korn/Ferry 

International has been the executive recruitment industry’s leader and innovator, and today, has evolved as the world’s premier provider of executive talent management solutions.

  

K-Swiss (KSWS) - Since 1966, K-SWISS has represented innovation, quality, performance and style. Its signature K-SWISS "CLASSIC," the first leather tennis shoe, made its debut at Wimbledon in 1966, and more than 40 years

 later, is still a style staple both on and off the court. Today, K-SWISS' premium sports heritage has 

expanded from tennis footwear, to also lifestyle, running, training, nautical, and free-running

 footwear that stands up to the performance demands of world-class athletes and trendsetters alike. 

Landec Corp. (LNDC) - Landec Corporation and its subsidiaries design, develop, manufacture, and sell temperature-activated and other specialty polymer products for food and agricultural

 applications. In addition, outside of food and ag, the Company will selectively work with industry leaders as licensed partners. The Company's strategy is to identify commercially attractive 

business opportunities and to seek market share through the application of its proprietary, enabling Intelimer® technology.

Sigma Designs (SIGM) - Sigma Designs develops and markets high-performance, highly-integrated System-on-a-Chip (SoC) semiconductors for the following key markets:

• IPTV Set-top Boxes
• Blu-ray Players/Recorders
• HDTVs
• Digital Media Adapters
• Portable Media Players
• UWB (Ultra-Wideband) Connectivity Products

Thor Industries (THO)-

 Thor Industries is the world's largest manufacturer of

 recreation vehicles and a major builder of commercial buses, and has

 been driving for excellence since its founding in 1980. 

Verigy Ltd. (VRGY)- Verigy

 designs, manufactures, sells, and services advanced test systems and solutions for the semiconductor industry. Building upon our proud heritage—the roots of Hewlett-Packard Company and the strengths of Agilent Technologies—we work closely with our customers to help lower their cost of test and improve their overall competitiveness.

                                           

   Company       Cash       Debt       Insiders       P/E       Price

AVX Corp.        600m       0              72%           12        $ 8.85

Korn Ferry         202m       0             10%              7        $9.62

K-Swiss             291m       9.4m       21%           10       $10.01

Landec Corp.   61m          0             14%            12        $ 5.45

Sigma Design  132m       0              19%              6        $11.37

Thor Industries  178M       0               46%           11        $11.73

Verigy Ltd.         340m       0               17%           17         $8.33

*Famed Value Investor Martin Whitman who is a veteran stock picker with a long, distinguished history as a control investor. He is Co-Chief Investment Officer of Third Avenue Management and has successfully identified value in securities for more than 50 years. Currently Mr. Whitman holds large stakes in AVX Corp. and K-Swiss. He is the second largest holder in both companies

*Author suggests futher research before investing.

 Author is currently long  KFY, KSWS, and THO