Too soon to buy more

Article Excerpt

AMERICAN WOODMARK $23.22 (Nasdaq symbol AMWD; SI Rating: Speculative) (540-665-9100;www.americanwoodmark.com; Shares outstanding: 14.1 million; Market cap: $327.7 million) is a U.S.-based maker of cabinets for kitchens and bathrooms. It offers more than 380 cabinet lines in a variety of designs, materials and finishes. The company sells these through a network of dealers and distributors, as well as directly to home centres such as Home Depot and major homebuilders. American Woodmark operates 14 plants and various service centres across the U.S. In the three months ended April 30, 2009, American Woodmark lost $2.9 million, or $0.21 a share. A year earlier, it earned $36,000, or nil per share. But if you exclude one-time restructuring charges, the company would have earned $0.22 a share in the latest quarter. That’s much higher than the loss of $0.06 a share that analysts were expecting. Sales fell 1.8%, to $140.7 million from $143.3 million. Lower fuel and labour costs were the main reason for the higher profits…