CROCS INC. $9.73 Nasdaq Symbol CROX

Article Excerpt

CROCS INC. $9.73, symbol CROX on Nasdaq, (Shares outstanding: 82.4 million; Market cap: $802.1 million) shows what can happen when a hot new issue goes cold. The company first sold stock to the public in February, 2006 at $10.50 a share (split-adjusted). It got as high as $75.21 in late October, 2007, but has moved down steadily ever since. Crocs designs and sells a range of footwear and other items that use its proprietary Croslite material. The company is best known for its brightly colored “Crocs” clogs. In addition to routine newissue risk, Crocs suffers from various other negatives. Its eyecatching products and fastgrowing sales attracted a lot of media and broker attention. This raised investor expectations, and at the same time spurred competition from vastly cheaper imitations. The company made a number of acquisitions to expand its product lines, and that’s always a risky way to grow. It established licensing agreements with Disney and other children’s entertainment companies. That’s costly and does…