| Ticker symbol | Company | Price as of 12/2/02 | 52-week high | 52-week low | % price change last month | % price change year to date | Revenue per share T4Q | % total debt/total capital |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIRECT TO CONSUMER | ||||||||
| FLWS | 1-800-Flowers.com | $7.15 | $17.86 | $4.75 | 50.7 | (54.2) | $507 | 11.3 |
| BL | Blair Corp. | 22.85 | 26.80 | 16.50 | 18.6 | 1.1 | 561 | 6.2 |
| CWTR | Coldwater Creek | 20.12 | 25.57 | 11.95 | 6.3 | (5.0) | 475 | 0 |
| HNV | Hanover Direct | 0.19 | 0.54 | 0.16 | (12.5) | (48.7) | 466 | 43.9 |
| JILL | J. Jill Group | 14.45 | 27.50 | 12.73 | 7.8 | 0.7 | 332 | 13.5 |
| LVC | Lillian Vernon Corp. | 3.80 | 8.25 | 3.65 | 3.0 | (42.9) | 247 | 0 |
| MBAY | MediaBay | 1.12 | 6.04 | 0.53 | (4.2) | 80.7 | 46 | 63.2 |
| SPGLA | Spiegel (CL A) | 0.49 | 5.10 | 0.20 | (16.4) | (89.2) | 3,297 | 52.5 |
| DIRECT TO BUSINESS | ||||||||
| BBOX | Black Box Corp. | $44.25 | $55.87 | $28.02 | 18.1 | (16.3) | $657 | 13.9 |
| CDWC | CDW Computer Centers | 43.77 | 60.00 | 40.25 | (3.9) | (18.5) | 4,199 | 0 |
| HSIC | Henry Schein | 44.53 | 57.73 | 34.89 | (15.2) | 20.3 | 2,776 | 28.1 |
| MSM | MSC Industrial Direct | 17.20 | 24.36 | 9.30 | 36.8 | (12.9) | 794 | 0.3 |
| NEB | New England Business Service | 23.80 | 29.31 | 18.01 | (1.2) | 24.3 | 553 | 52.4 |
| PCCC | PC Connection | 6.02 | 16.54 | 3.72 | 20.5 | (59.4) | 1,143 | 5.1 |
| MALL | PC Mall | 3.45 | 5.10 | 1.76 | 25.0 | (15.0) | 802 | 4.1 |
| PFP | Premier Farnell | 6.00 | 10.10 | 4.25 | 26.2 | (31.4) | 1,065 | 74.9 |
| SCHS | School Specialty | 19.72 | 29.94 | 18.45 | (18.6) | (13.8) | 853 | 52.1 |
| SSPY | Sport Supply Group | 1.50 | 1.75 | 0.92 | 3.5 | 57.9 | 100 | 31.6 |
| TESS | Tessco Technologies | 10.20 | 18.96 | 7.49 | 25.4 | (40.5) | 267 | 20.8 |
| ZONS | Zones | 1.07 | 1.92 | 0.70 | (2.0) | 35.4 | 327 | 5.2 |
| Source: financial Advisory Partners and company filings | ||||||||
Of the 20 publicly traded catalogers tracked by Financial Advisory Partners for Catalog Age, 40% suffered a drop in stock value through December. While that’s more discouraging than the previous month’s performance — only 30% of the companies lost value in November — it’s still a vast improvement upon October, when three-quarters of the stocks declined.
“The market for direct marketing stocks continues to improve selectively,” says Ken Packer, of Waukee, IA-based Financial Advisory Partners, “with investors moving toward companies that are performing reasonably well during this difficult economic period and moving away from the laggards.”
Packer adds that the business-to-business catalog stocks are outperforming their consumer counterparts. “Five direct-to-business stocks were up more than 20% in December,” he says, “as computer suppliers benefited from somewhat improving sentiment toward technology markets in 2003.”
The biggest gainers for the month were multititle gifts marketer 1-800-Flowers.com, whose stock price rose nearly 51%, and industrial supplies cataloger MSC Industrial Direct, with a nearly 37% rise in share price. The biggest losers were multititle school supplies marketer School Specialty, whose price per share fell almost 19%, and troubled Spiegel, which fell more than 16%.
But at least Spiegel’s stock price was higher than that of multititle mailer Hanover Direct: $0.49 vs. $0.19.