Q: Buy, sell, hold? It’s a very thinly traded stock.
5i Research Answer:
PBL is recovering well from some earnings weakness a year or so ago. It remains leveraged with debt more than 3X cash flow, but strong earnings growth is expected. The last quarter was good, with EPS 9% better than expected and sales 2% better. Raymond James raised its target after the results. It is not cheap at all at 29X earnings, but has high market share and a generally-solid history. Shares are up more than 10-fold since 2011. We would be comfortable owning a small position for small cap investors.