The Wall Street Transcript > Sectors > Industry / Services Sector

Obama Administration Polices Hurting Industrial Equipment Sector

2009-07-02 10:00:18

Obama administration hurting the economy ?

In a recent interview John Collopy of Briggs-Ficks Securities, LLC for our Industrial Equipment report Mr. Collopy when asked about how the new administration was impacting the sector he said "That's a problem. I am very concerned about their overall economic policies. They have flooded the system with liquidity that I don't know if much, any, some, or none of it is going to spill into the fundamentals of the economy at this point. I am afraid these policies might dampen multiples going forward because people are going to be leery of govern­ment interventions that could impact investor sentiment and I think that’s what one has to be very careful of."

Problem , Concerned,  Afraid these are words that are never associated with recovery. Is the Obama administration off the mark or has Mr . Collopy missed the boat? Read the full Industrial Equipment Report and you let us know. follow and respond at twitter.com/wstranscript

Exclusive Wall Street Transcript Content Available on Twitter

2009-07-01 10:48:51

As part of our June 29 Industrial Equipment Report we spoke with Karl S. Puehringer of Baldwin Technology Company, Inc. (BLD). The complete interview can be read at twitter.com/wstranscript

When asked about the companies sales mix Mr. Puehringer stated  “I’ll give you a quick overview of our current sales mix. More than 50% of our sales during our last fiscal quarter were re­curring revenues derived from consumables, service, parts and our U.S. food blends operation, and consequently, less than 50% of our revenue during Q3 FY09 came from equipment. By region, 26% of our revenues are in the Americas. Our largest region is Europe, which accounts for slightly less than half of our business, and the second largest region is Asia with Japan being the other most im­portant country for Baldwin. The geographic balance in sales is a major strength of Baldwin. “

The complete text of our interview is available through our Twitter portal at twitter.com/wstranscript. Make sure to check back with our Twitter for more exclusive content, commentary and issue updates

Railroads See Significant Falloff says Seidl of Dahlman Rose

2009-06-23 11:51:12

In our interview with analyst Jason Seidl of Dahlman Rose & Co., we spoke a little about the current state of the companies in the railroad space. According to him things are getting worse, not better, and all because of coal:

 Mr. Seidl: If you look year to date, carloadings are down almost 18.5%. If you look quarter to date, they're down almost 23%. It is a significant falloff, but, again, I'm pointing at the fact that it actually hasn't gotten better, in fact it's gotten a little worse. I think the reason for that is that coal is rolling over. Coal has gone from being down just over 5% in the first quarter to down nearly 18% thus far in the second quarter. There are two main reasons for coal being under so much pressure right now, a drastic decline in exports and sluggish domestic demand. You have the lack of an export market, which is driven by coal prices and demand. Indeed, we are currently out of the money compared to South African coal. On the demand front, it is fairly obvious what has happened to the steel industry in Europe and this has been weighing heavily on demand for metallurgical exports to Europe. While China has started to import some coal, it is only on the margin.Looking at the domestic utility market, we find that demand is not much better. If you look at the burn levels for a lot of the utilities in the first quarter, we were down over 3%. While 3% may not sound like much, it is actually quite severe for a utility market.

For the complete interview with Mr. Seidl, including a full overview of the Railroad space and stock picks, click here. 

Macquarie Capital picks Portland General Electric in Electric Utilities Space

2009-05-26 17:30:26

As part of our special focus on Investing in Utilities in the latest issue of TWST, we spoke with analyst Marc De Croisset of Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc. Mr. De Croisset told us one name that has been looked over by investors but presents a good investment is Portland General Electric (POR). We asked him to tell us a little bit about it, and why it's been overlooked by investors:

Mr. De Croisset: It's a puzzle to me [as to why investors are not interested]. There is some litigation overhang, which we think has more bark than bite. There is some volatility in the earnings stream due to the structure of the fuel recovery mechanism. The utility is also regionally focused. This may scare some people away as it leaves POR in a no man's land of investor risk appetite. We view this as an opportunity and not a liability. POR just got left behind...POR issued equity in the first quarter. We don't expect another equity issuance for some time. The rate base growth of that story is very significant, and I'm hard pressed to understand why it's trading at such a deep discount to book value.

For the complete Investing in Utilities issue, including a full interview with Mr. De Croisset as well as interviews with additional analysts and CEOs of top companies in the space, click here.

Doerr of Janney Montgomery Scott Picks California Water Service Group & Artesian Resources for Water Utilities

2009-05-19 17:15:47

In our last issue, one of our special focuses was on Investing in Utilities. We spoke with analyst Heike Doerr of Janney Montgomery Scott, who told us which companies she was recommending in this space and why:

• Calfornia Water Service Group (CWT)- "This California utility has been the first to benefit from the state's improving regulatory environment. The utility received a favorable rate increase in July 2008 that has been producing solid earnings, and the company has implemented favorable regulatory mechanisms that minimize the impact that purchased water costs and conservation efforts have on earnings."
• Artesian Resources (ARTNA)- "Artesian has done a good job of navigating the Delaware housing slowdown by expanding its regulated franchise into Maryland, growing its wastewater business, and increasing its non-regulated capabilities through a handful of small acquisitions during 2008."

For the complete Investing in Utilities report, including a full interview with Ms. Doerr, as well as other analysts and top CEOS in this space, click here.