Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat: Can you give me your opinion of SP Plus, listed on Nasdaq? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: SP Plus Corp., $32.95, symbol SP on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 22.4 million; Market cap: $738.2 million; www.spplus.com), is the largest provider of parking services in the U.S. It also operates in Canada and Puerto Rico. The company’s Urban division (70% of revenue) operates about 3,700 parking facilities for a total of 2.0 million parking spaces, spread across hundreds of North American cities. That includes parking-related shuttle bus operations. SP Plus operates about 81% of its locations under management contracts. Clients include universities, hospitals, local governments, shopping centres and hotels. Under a management contract, the company receives a base monthly fee for managing the facility, and it may also get an incentive fee for helping the facility achieve performance targets. Typically, however, all of the underlying revenue and expenses under a standard management contract flow through to the owner of the property rather than to SP Plus. The remaining 19% of the company’s locations are operated under lease contracts. Under a lease,…