Good quarter for Cintas

Article Excerpt

CINTAS CORP. $51 (Nasdaq symbol CTAS; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 120.8 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 1.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cintas- .com) designs and makes uniforms, which it sells to over 900,000 businesses, mainly in North America. It also offers related services, including office cleaning and document shredding. In the first quarter of its 2014 fiscal year, which ended August 31, 2013, Cintas’s sales rose 6.6%, to $1.12 billion from $1.05 billion a year earlier. Sales at the uniform business, which supplied 71% of Cintas’s overall revenue, rose 5.0%, while sales at its other divisions (29% of the total) gained 10.5%. Earnings increased 1.3%, to $77.8 million from $76.7 million. Cintas spent $107.0 million on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 5.0%, to $0.63 from $0.60. In fiscal 2014, Cintas expects to earn $2.70 to $2.79 a share. It trades at…