Topic: Growth Stocks

TERADATA CORP. $27 – New York symbol TDC

TERADATA CORP. $27 (New York symbol TDC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 171.8 million; Market cap: $4.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; WSSF Rating: Average) makes computers and software that capture and store large amounts of a business’s data, including its sales and inventory. Teradata then analyzes this information and identifies buying habits and trends. This helps its clients make better decisions.

In the three months ended June 30, 2009, Teradata’s earnings dropped 10.1%, to $62 million from $69 million a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 5.3%, to $0.36 from $0.38, on fewer outstanding shares. However, Teradata is selling more high-margin services. At the same time, it is cutting overhead and travel expenses. As a result, its gross margin (gross profits as a percentage of revenue) rose to 55.3% from 54.7%.

Revenue fell 7.5%, to $421 million from $455 million. Teradata gets about half of its revenue from its international operations, and the higher U.S. dollar hurt the value of this contribution during the quarter.

If you disregard foreign exchange, revenue fell 2%. Teradata has no debt, and holds cash of $638 million, or $3.71 a share. This will let it keep spending around 6% of its revenue on research, and compete with larger companies like Oracle and IBM.

The company should earn $1.26 a share in 2009. The stock trades at 21.4 times that estimate.

Teradata is a buy.

Comments are closed.