U.S. stocks: Cintas reports higher sales and earnings

Cintas Corp., Nasdaq symbol CTAS, designs, makes and sells uniforms to about 800,000 business, mainly in North America. Cintas also offers related services, including office cleaning and document shredding. Cintas is one of the U.S. stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In the three months ended February 28, 2011, the company’s sales rose 8.8%, to $937.8 million from $861.8 million a year earlier (all figures in U.S. dollars). Earnings rose 20.6%, to $59.1 million from $49.0 million. Earnings per share rose 28.1%, to $0.41 from $0.32, on more shares outstanding. The latest earnings easily beat the consensus estimate of $0.36 a share. The company holds cash of $216.7 million, or $1.49 a share. The U.S. stock’s long-term debt of $806.4 million is only 19% of its $4.3-billion market cap. High unemployment continues to hold back demand for company uniforms. However, Cintas is doing a good job of selling its other business services to its current clients. If you’re interested in investing in U.S. stocks like Cintas, you should subscribe to Wall Street Stock Forecaster. What’s more, you can get one month free when you subscribe today. Click here to learn how.

Jim is an associate editor at TSI Network. He is the lead reporter and analyst for The Successful Investor and Wall Street Stock Forecaster and a member of the Investment Planning Committee. Jim has held the Chartered Financial Analyst designation since 1992 and spent more than a decade at the Financial Post DataGroup before joining TSI Network. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto.