It's earnings season yet again, also known as progress report time. While there are too many to review, we'll focus on some of the highlights coming out of off the beaten path deep value land.
Sum-of-the parts story NL Industries (NL) saw second-quarter revenue more than double to $36.3 million, while earnings came in at 26 cents, five cents ahead of the "consensus" (which is just one analyst). NL ended the quarter with $145 million or nearly $3 per share in cash.
Currently trading at 7x next year's earnings estimate, NL yields just over 4%, courtesy of March's 50% dividend hike. In classic fashion, NL shares opened up slightly at $6 Thursday in the wake of the earnings release, before falling 13% intraday, but recovered to close at $5.93, up 1%.
NL shares are up 24% year-to-date, and 61% over the past year.
Falcon Minerals (FLMN) , a member of my 2021 Tax Loss Selling Recovery Portfolio, reported second-quarter earnings per share of seven cents, in line with estimates, while it missed on revenue ($16.2 million versus $19 million consensus), certainly nothing special. However, the company did something noteworthy, raising the quarterly dividend 50% to 15 cents/share. While that seemingly puts the indicated dividend yield at a whopping 12.6%, FLMN increases/decreases its dividend from quarter to quarter, based on cash flow (over the past 11 quarters, the dividend has been as high as 20 cents, and as low as 2.5 cents), so there are no guarantees it will continue at that rate.
FLMN shares are up 52% year-to-date, and 77% over the past year.
Florida agriculture and citrus name Alico (ALCO) beat the third quarter "consensus" (again, just one analyst) of 33 cents, earning 51 cents from continuing operations. Total revenue rose 34%, as citrus prices strengthened. A $30.3 million gain on the sale of real estate put net income for the quarter at $27.1 million (or $3.61/share).
ALCO ended the quarter with $31.4 million in cash, up from $10.4 million for the second quarter, while debt fell from $142.9 million to $130.4 million. Currently trading at 21x next year's earnings estimate, ALCO yields 5.35% courtesy of June's massive quarterly dividend hike from 18 cents to 50 cents.
ALCO shares are up 20% year-to-date, and 14.5% over the past year.
