Topic: How To Invest

Pat: I would appreciate your opinion of Lexmark International. Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Lexmark International, $21.60, symbol LXK on New York (Shares outstanding: 70.3 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; www.lexmark.com), makes and services a wide range of printers. It also sells related consumable supplies, such as toner cartridges. Printers contribute about 23% of the company’s revenue. Supplies account for 70%, and services (including software licenses) provide the remaining 7%. In the three months ended September 30, 2012, Lexmark’s revenue fell 11.2% to $919.2 million from $1.03 billion a year earlier. The decline mainly came from weakness in Europe, a lower contribution from its international operations due to unfavourable foreign-exchange rates and its exit from the inkjet printer business. Excluding one-time items, earnings per share fell slightly, to $0.94 from $0.95 a year earlier. That beat the consensus estimate of $0.78. Lexmark’s growth strategy is now mainly focused on office printers and customers who still use a lot of paper, such as advertisers and catalogue publishers. Meanwhile, it is laying off 1,700 workers as it exits the inkjet…