| Ticker symbol | Company | Price as of 4/30/03 | 52-week high | 52-week low | % price change last month | Revenue per share T4Q | % total debt/total capital |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIRECT TO CONSUMER | |||||||
| FLWS | 1-800-Flowers.com | $7.61 | $14.60 | $4.75 | 13.3% | $551 | 11.3% |
| BL | Blair Corp. | 21.85 | 26.80 | 18.25 | (7.1% | 570 | 6.2 |
| CWTR | Coldwater Creek | 9.75 | 17.05 | 7.97 | 3.0 | 473 | 0 |
| HNV | Hanover Direct | 0.19 | 0.41 | 0.16 | (13.6) | 458 | 43.9 |
| JILL | J. Jill Group | 14.35 | 27.50 | 9.51 | 23.7 | 348 | 13.5 |
| LVC | Lillian Vernon Corp. | 7.15 | 8.25 | 3.65 | 69.8 | 247 | 0 |
| MBAY | MediaBay | 0.71 | 6.04 | 0.67 | (16.5) | 48 | 63.2 |
| SPGLA | Spiegel | 0.07 | 1.75 | 0.04 | (7.5) | 2,973 | 466.8 |
| DIRECT TO BUSINESS | |||||||
| BBOX | Black Box Corp. | $31.75 | $55.70 | $25.58 | 7.2% | $631 | 13.9% |
| CDWC | CDW Computer Centers | 42.63 | 56.90 | 36.30 | 4.5 | 4,279 | 0 |
| HSIC | Henry Schein | 43.12 | 57.73 | 34.17 | (4.4) | 2,825 | 22.5 |
| MSM | MSC Industrial Direct | 18.5 | 21.25 | 9.30 | 15.7 | 831 | 0.3 |
| NEB | New England Business Service | 25.45 | 29.05 | 19.99 | (0.6) | 543 | 52.4 |
| PCCC | PC Connection | 7.04 | 10.12 | 3.72 | 34.1 | 1,238 | 4.2 |
| MALL | PC Mall | 3.40 | 4.65 | 1.76 | 7.9 | 906 | 4.1 |
| PFP | Premier Farnell | 6.40 | 9.68 | 4.25 | 16.6 | 1,066 | 74.9 |
| SCHS | School Specialty | 18.58 | 28.8 | 17.02 | 4.6 | 860 | 52.1 |
| SSPY | Sport Supply Group | 1.80 | 2.10 | 1.07 | (7.7) | 102 | 31.6 |
| TESS | Tessco Technologies | 6.50 | 15.55 | 6.25 | (9.9) | 274 | 20.8 |
| ZONS | Zones | 0.79 | 1.92 | 0.60 | (2.5) | 414 | 0.7 |
Investors apparently welcomed Ripplewood Holdings and ZelnickMedia’s purchase of Lillian Vernon Corp. — and that helped push up the overall stock performance of the consumer catalogers tracked for Catalog Age by Waukee, IA-based Financial Advisory Partners. On April 15, the day before the acquisition was announced, Lillian Vernon closed at $4.20 a share. The next day, it closed at $7.10 a share. That strong performance pushed the direct-to-consumer catalog stocks to a 9% improvement in April over March, says Financial Advisory Partners’ Ken Packer. That’s in line with the performance of the S&P 500 retail index, which also increased 9% for the month.
The business-to-business catalogers didn’t perform quite so well. Overall, their share prices rose 4.9% in April. The biggest gainer on the b-to-b side was computer reseller PC Connection, with a 34% rise in value. Investors responded favorably to the company’s 20% rise in first-quarter sales and its $1.6 million net income for the quarter, a turnaround from the $2.1 million it lost in the first quarter of 2002.
And Packer, for one, is confident that things will only get better. “With the war over, interest rates low, GDP growth continuing, and corporate profits up nicely from the lows of last year, it appears we are in the early stages of an economic recovery,” he says. “As investors begin to appreciate the likelihood of better sales and profits in the Christmas 2003 selling season, we believe direct marketing stocks will move higher.”