Tempur Sealy is a sell

Article Excerpt

TEMPUR SEALY $46.05 (New York symbol TPX; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (800878-8889; www.tempursealy.com; Shares o/s: 57.9 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; No dividends paid) is down over 28% after it recently terminated its contracts with Mattress Firm, its largest customer. Mattress Firm, through its 3,500 stores in 49 U.S. states, represents about 25% to 30% of Tempur’s U.S. sales. The move followed demands by Mattress Firm for Tempur to cut its prices. The company believes that it offers the best products and that they deserve a premium price. But, as well as losing its biggest customer, Tempur still faces a lot of competition from other memory-foam mattress makers. They include its biggest rival, Serta. The company also faces competition from increasingly popular online retailers. Those competitors ship memory-foam mattresses to customers at significantly lower prices. We now see Tempur Sealy as a sell. sell…