The Razor's Edge

2-Year Price History

Ockham's Rating

Rating Specific Information Withheld Premium Access Only

CAM Revenue

As a value investing shop, we are interested in seeing how CAM's revenues measure up against past performances. One easily understandable way of doing that is to compare Price to Sales per share levels over a given time frame. Assuming it is available, Ockham prefers to look at ten years of history (for this stock there are 10 years of history available) and we weigh recent years more heavily. This allows us to find weighted average historical high and low Price to Sales ratios, which give us a better idea of the stock's current underlying value. Using this method, we have established a high range for Price to Sales of 2.05x and the low end of the range at 1.12x.

With respect to these historically rational metrics, notice that the current Price to Sales per share ratio for CAM of 0.78x is well below its normal historic Price to Sales levels. At a price of $22.07, CAM is 52% below where we would expect to see it. Clearly, this stock looks undervalued compared to historical levels, at least on a Price to Sales basis. This will positively affect our analysis because it is rare to find a stock this far below historical norms, and we would expect some price appreciation to bring this metric back towards a more normal range.

CAM Cash Earnings

As a value investment framework, Ockham Research is similar to a private equity firm in terms of our valuation methods. We are always on the lookout for value in the form of sales and cash numbers. In the case of CAM, Ockham views their current Cash Earnings as significantly below their historical average multiples of Cash Earnings, as calculated by our proprietary analysis. It is incredibly important to understand that for CAM, the current level of Cash Earnings compared to its historical levels helps identify where CAM is in relation to what the investing community was willing to pay for this level of Cash Earnings in the past. With a historical high Cash Earnings per share ratio of 19.23 and a historical low Cash Earnings per share ratio of 10.86, an investor can relate where value becomes optimal.

So what does "significantly below" mean when we talk about Price to Cash Earnings numbers for CAM? From the Ockham perspective, we are looking specifically at CAM to see if the market is recognizing the huge disparity between CAM's past stock price to Cash Earnings ratio to today's levels. At a difference of 61% below the average historical Price to Cash Earnings ratio, our view would be quite positive at this point. However, as with all metrics, we need to also take other factors into account when looking at CAM. While we view better Cash Earnings metrics as very important, if the market is slow to identify this value, or if Cash Earnings were to fall from these levels, we would become more neutral in our stance.

CAM Dividends

A strong dividend payment history is looked upon as a favorable characteristic on a company’s future and potentially can receive a positive Ockham rating. That being said, we don't require dividend payments for company's whose management has elected to forgo them entirely. While we do like to see companies with healthy and growing dividends, it is not appropriate for all companies, especially those focused on growth. We regard CAM as neutral in terms of dividends because they have no history of paying a dividend and continue to reinvest that money for growth purposes.