Harte-Hanks
New York symbol HHS, provides direct marketing services to businesses. It also publishes shopper newspapers in California and Florida.
We’re always on the lookout for new stocks that we feel offer
conservative investors strong growth with limited risk. International
Flavors & Fragrances (this issue), is a good example.
At the same time, we constantly monitor our current recommendations
for reasons that might cause us to change our opinion.
Here are six with limited prospects that we now see as sells:
HARTE-HANKS INC. $12 (New York …read more »
HARTE-HANKS INC. $12 (New York symbol HHS; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 63.6 million; Market cap: $763.2 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.harte-hanks.com) gets two-thirds of its revenue by selling direct-mail and other marketing services to a wide variety of clients. The remaining third comes from publishing free, advertising-supported newspapers in Florida and …read more »
More advertisers are targeting audiences that are more specific than those offered by traditional media, like newspapers and TV. That’s helping marketing specialists like Teradata and Harte-Hanks. This trend should spur both companies’ growth for years to come.
TERADATA CORP. $41 (New York symbol TDC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector: Shares outstanding: 167.5 million; Market cap: $6.9 billion; Price-to-sales …read more »
PEPSICO INC. $61 (New York symbol PEP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $97.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 3.2%; WSSF Rating: Above Average) will invest $2.5 billion in China over the next three years. To put this cost in perspective, PepsiCo earned $1.4 billion, or $0.89 a share, in the three months ended …read more »
APPLE INC. $204 (Nasdaq symbol AAPL; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 900.7 million; Market cap: $183.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.0; WSSF Rating: Average) has won its court case against Psystar Corp., a Miami-based company that sells computers that run on Apple’s Mac operating system. Apple refuses to let other computer makers use its software, and the …read more »
HARTE-HANKS INC. $14 (New York symbol HHS; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 63.6 million; Market cap: $890.4 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; WSSF Rating: Average) gets roughly two-thirds of its revenue by selling direct-mail and other marketing services to clients in a wide variety of industries. These help them attract new customers, and sell more goods and services to …read more »
The recession has prompted most businesses to put off buying new equipment and lower their spending on certain services. That has hurt the earnings of these five companies, which sell specialized products and services to corporate clients. But since these products and services help businesses cut costs, their long-term prospects remain bright. We see all but one as buys.
XEROX CORP. …read more »
HARTE-HANKS INC. $5.29 (New York symbol HHS; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 63.3 million; Market cap: $334.9 million; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; WSSF Rating: Average) provides direct mail and other marketing services. It also publishes free “shopper” newspapers in Florida and California. These papers rely solely on advertising for revenue.
Due to weaker advertising and marketing spending, particularly by banks …read more »
HARTE-HANKS INC. $12 (New York symbol HHS; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 63.2 million; Market cap: $758.4 million; WSSF Rating: Average) has struggled in the past year, as weaker demand for advertising has hurt earnings at its direct marketing operations (66% of revenue) and its shopper newspapers in California and Florida (34% of revenue). In the three months …read more »
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES INC. $124 (New York symbol IBM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $173.6 billion; WSSF Rating: Above average) earned $1.65 a share in the three months ended March 31, 2008, up 36.4% from $1.21 a year earlier. Revenue rose 11.4%, to $24.5 billion from $22.0 billion.
IBM continues to gain from …read more »
