Top picks 2012: Flextronics

Cash-rich electronics company shows strong growth in core businesses.

By TheStockAdvisors Jan 5, 2012 3:48PM
Image: Construction Workers Carrying Window (© Steve Hix/Somos Images/Corbis)This post is one in a series in which over 50 newsletter advisors share their Top Picks for 2012.

By Benj Gallander & Ben Stadelmann, Contra the Heard Investment Letter

We focus on buying deep value plays that are out-of-favor and that strategy has contributed to our 10-year annualized return of 19.6%. One of our favorites that is overdue for a recovery is Flextronics (FLEX).

This is a huge design and electronics manufacturing company with revenues north of $30 billion, a healthy bottom line for the past couple of years, and management that has worked smartly to turn it around.

The company serves many sectors, including infrastructure, computing, aerospace, automotive, defense and marine -- and therefore, in some respects, acts as an economic bellwether.

Second-quarter results, though not as good as 2010, were not bad at all. Revenue increased 8% from the previous year to $8 billion, but the bottom line shrank somewhat as net income was $158 million. The company renewed its credit line, stretching it to 2016. This adds some certainty for investors going forward.

We would like to see management decide to take some of the cash hoard of almost $1.6 billion and pay down the debt further, but that does not appear to be in the cards right now. In our view, that is a smarter use of cash than the ongoing share buyback.

Less positive is that revenues are forecast to decrease to the $7.3 to $7.7 billion level in the upcoming quarter. This is due to the exit of the ODM PC business, which will knock sales down by about $550 million.

After first-quarter results were announced, CEO Mike McNamara was delighted and had reason to be. As he said, "Every one of our four core business groups grew double digits year over year, and our revenue marked the second-highest June quarter in our history."

Our initial sell target for FLEX is $28.24, below where it traded for years. Once again, our hope is that patience will be a virtue. Or, as Stanislaw Lec wrote, "You must first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience."

Given the lofty sell target, the time frame to potentially reach this goal means that patience is a necessity.

 Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers a free daily review of the favorite stock ideas of the nation's top financial newsletter advisors.

0Comments

DATA PROVIDERS

Copyright © 2013 Microsoft. All rights reserved.

Quotes are real-time for NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX. See delay times for other exchanges.

Fundamental company data and historical chart data provided by Thomson Reuters (click for restrictions). Real-time quotes provided by BATS Exchange. Real-time index quotes and delayed quotes supplied by Interactive Data Real-Time Services. Fund summary, fund performance and dividend data provided by Morningstar Inc. Analyst recommendations provided by Zacks Investment Research. StockScouter data provided by Verus Analytics. IPO data provided by Hoover's Inc. Index membership data provided by SIX Financial Information.

Japanese stock price data provided by Nomura Research Institute Ltd.; quotes delayed 20 minutes. Canadian fund data provided by CANNEX Financial Exchanges Ltd.

STOCK SCOUTER

StockScouter rates stocks from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, using a system of advanced mathematics to determine a stock's expected risk and return. Ratings are displayed on a bell curve, meaning there will be fewer ratings of 1 and 10 and far more of 4 through 7.

126
126 rated 1
258
258 rated 2
459
459 rated 3
600
600 rated 4
671
671 rated 5
682
682 rated 6
601
601 rated 7
455
455 rated 8
271
271 rated 9
113
113 rated 10
12345678910

Top Picks

SYMBOLNAMERATING
ABTAbbott Laboratories10
AIGAmerican International Group Inc10
ATVIActivision Blizzard Inc10
CACA Inc10
CSCOCisco Systems Inc10
More
Fidelity Brokerage Services, Member NYSE, SIPC. (c) 2011 FMR LLC. All rights reserved

VIDEO ON MSN MONEY

ABOUT

Top Stocks provides analysis about the most noteworthy stocks in the market each day, combining some of the best content from around the MSN Money site and the rest of the Web.

Contributors include professional investors and journalists affiliated with MSN Money.

Follow us on Twitter @topstocksmsn.