The Aggressive Investor

Article Excerpt

Last month in this space, I said the 2007/2008 stock market decline may have ended, but you still need to stay alert for areas of above-average risk. I singled out recent new issues as likely to be miserable performers in the next few years. This past week we had a fine example. CROCS INC. $9.73, symbol CROX on Nasdaq, (Shares outstanding: 82.4 million; Market cap: $802.1 million) shows what can happen when a hot new issue goes cold. The company first sold stock to the public in February, 2006 at $10.50 a share (split-adjusted). It got as high as $75.21 in late October, 2007, but has moved down steadily ever since. Crocs designs and sells a range of footwear and other items that use its proprietary Croslite material. The company is best known for its brightly colored “Crocs” clogs. In addition to routine newissue risk, Crocs suffers from various other negatives. Its eyecatching products and fastgrowing sales attracted a lot of media and broker…