Thanks, Laurie. Great analysis and thought process of
Stryker (SYK). This methodology can certainly be applied to other company
studies.
Butch Lang
In a message dated 12/14/2010 12:51:37 P.M. Central Standard Time,
laurie@bivio.biz writes:
I
noticed this morning that Stryker, SYK, issued an 8-K report on Dec.
6. 8-K reports are issued when a company knows of an event that may
have a material impact on their earnings. In this case, one
of the items noted was an upcoming sale of a division. Stryker
reported that the loss on this sale would result in a $.19-$.20 decrease
in their 4th quarter earnings. Since the projected earnings were
$.89, this would be a pretty significant hit.
However, they
indicated that their guidance for "adjusted" diluted net earnings for the
year was still the same. $3.27-$3.30. This is the only
quarter left. The only way to achieve this guidance would be to have
the earnings come in at $.89. Of course the
qualifier "adjusted" leaves some room for them to play with which numbers
they include when reporting the "adjusted" Earnings per Share.
When
a company discontinues an operation, it must extract the income and
expenses associated with that operation from it's financial results.
What will be important going forward is to watch the impact of removing
this divisions' operations on sales growth and
margins.
Hopefully, Stryker will provide restated historical
financial statements which exclude the operations of this division.
That will allow you to make comparisons and, if needed, revise sales growth
and net margin projections based on the new operating
scenario.
Stryker has been facing some headwinds recently
anyway. It's P/E has contracted quite a bit. It
looks like "unadjusted" diluted earnings per share might come in lower than
anticipated. This would bump up current P/E a bit. If
people aren't comfortable with the level it moves up to, it might
further constrain upward movement of the
stock price.
Hopefully, this sale is a good business decision
and will allow Stryker to eventually return to the sales growth, net margin
and P/E levels it has been able to achieve historically. Anyone
looking at it as a long term investment needs to think in those
terms. It's just that sometimes we wonder why prices of stocks that
are recommended as long term holdings "don't go anywhere" for a
while. This is an example of one of the types of events that might
cause that.
-- Laurie Frederiksen Invest with your
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Laurie Frederiksen on
Thank you Butch. I appreciate the feedback. I find lots of
interesting stories in financial statements. Glad you found it
interesting.