http://www.straightstocks.com Leading Stock Market News, Opinions and Commentary Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:24:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/lower-costs-help-badger-meter-analyst-blog/ http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/lower-costs-help-badger-meter-analyst-blog/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:15:02 +0000 Zacks Market Commentaries http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/26139/Lower+Costs+Help+Badger+Meter+-+Analyst+Blog Badger Meter (BMI) reported its third quarter results yesterday, after market close. The company reported earnings of 47 cents per share, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 44 cents per share and up 20.5% from 39 cents reported in the prior-year quarter.

Despite an 11.6% decline in sales, earnings during the quarter were higher than last year as the company benefited from lower commodity costs, ongoing cost reduction efforts, and pricing discipline. Gross margin in the quarter increased significantly to 39.0%, compared to 34.0% in the comparable quarter of 2008 due to favorable raw material pricing.

Sales to the utility market, which constitutes more than 80% of total revenue, declined 9% compared to the third quarter of 2008. The utility market is facing a downturn as the customers are postponing purchasing decisions while they wait to see if they can receive federal funds for infrastructure improvements. In the near-term we expect the utility market sales to remain depressed due to the current economic slowdown and uncertainty surrounding allocation of federal funds.

Sales of the company’s industrial products declined 24% compared to the prior-year quarter due to economic recession leading to weak demand across all the company’s industrial product lines.

We expect the weakness in the utility as well as industrial markets to continue in the fourth quarter. However, we expect the company to post higher earnings for 2009 as lower costs offset the decline in sales.

Although the uncertainty regarding the stimulus funding is adversely impacting the company’s utility market sales, we see significant long-term growth opportunities in this market as water utility customers upgrade to advanced metering (AMR/AMI) systems from manually read meters.

Moreover, Badger Meter has started selling its Orion technology to natural gas utilities for installation on their gas meters, which generated around $3.4 million in revenue last year. The company recently won a contract to supply Orion radio-frequency products for gas meters to Duke Energy. This is the company’s first major win in the natural gas utility market.

Badger Meter continues to invest in new products and technologies to meet evolving customer needs. The company believes that its operating cash flows and its ability to raise capital will provide adequate resources to fund ongoing operations and new product developments.
Read the full analyst report on "BMI"
Zacks Investment Research
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/lower-costs-help-badger-meter-analyst-blog/feed/ 0 http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/badger-meter-poised-for-growth-analyst-blog/ http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/badger-meter-poised-for-growth-analyst-blog/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:20:20 +0000 Zacks Market Commentaries http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/25234/Badger+Meter+Poised+for+Growth+-+Analyst+Blog Badger Meter (BMI) generates the bulk of its revenue selling commercial and residential water metering systems to water utilities. The company has significant long-term growth potential, as its water utility customers upgrade to advanced metering (AMR/AMI) systems from manually read meters.

According to the company, less than 30% of water meters installed in the U.S. have been converted to AMR/AMI, which means approximately 37,000 water utilities are still operating manually read meters. Badger Meter claims a current market share of approximately 20% in North America for AMR/AMI. There is plenty of room for growth as more customers upgrade their meters to the newer technologies.

The company is satisfying the market demand with its popular ORION drive-by AMR and the GALAXY fixed network AMI. In addition, Badger Meter has an agreement with Itron (ITRI) to resell the ITRON drive-by AMR until early 2011.

Also, the company continues to invest in new products and technologies to meet evolving customer needs. Recently, the company launched the E-Series™ Meter, a new line of residential water meters.

The company believes that its operating cash flows, available borrowing capacity including $39.6 million of unused credit lines as on June 30, 2009, and its ability to raise capital will provide adequate resources to fund ongoing operations, future capital expenditures, and new product developments.

Apart from providing the advanced metering solutions to water utility customers, the company sees other revenue enhancement opportunities. In recent years, Badger Meter has been asked to oversee and perform installation of its products in the field for some customers. Also, the company has started selling its Orion technology to natural gas utilities for installation on their gas meters.
Read the full analyst report on "BMI"
Read the full analyst report on "ITRI"
Zacks Investment Research
]]> http://www.straightstocks.com/stock-watch/badger-meter-poised-for-growth-analyst-blog/feed/ 0 http://www.straightstocks.com/market-commentary/how-to-profit-from-the-war-on-greenhouse-gasses/ http://www.straightstocks.com/market-commentary/how-to-profit-from-the-war-on-greenhouse-gasses/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 19:55:49 +0000 Chris Mayer http://www.contrarianprofits.com/?p=16627 http://www.straightstocks.com/market-commentary/how-to-profit-from-the-war-on-greenhouse-gasses/feed/ 0