For today’s bulletin, we take a look at our latest STRONG BUY and BUY upgrades. We also provide a link to download a FREE STOCK REPORT on Brooks Automation $BRKS, one of our top upgrades for the day.
VALUATION WATCH: Overvalued stocks now make up 36.26% of our stocks assigned a valuation and 13.8% of those equities are calculated to be overvalued by 20% or more. Five sectors are calculated to be overvalued.
For today’s edition of our upgrade list, we used our website’s advanced screening functions to search for UPGRADES to BUY or STRONG BUY with complete forecast and valuation data. They are presented by one-month forecast return. There were no STRONG BUY upgrades today. Every component of our top-five list is a BUY upgrade.
| Ticker | Company Name | Market Price | Valuation | Last 12-M Return | 1-M Forecast Return | 1-Yr Forecast Return | P/E Ratio | Sector Name |
| BRKS | BROOKS AUTOMATN | 28.48 | 7.77% | 3.56% | 0.56% | 6.72% | 22.48 | Computer and Technology |
| KEYS | KEYSIGHT TECH | 59.4 | 3.61% | 32.35% | 0.54% | 6.45% | 19.80 | Computer and Technology |
| WAT | WATERS CORP | 198.94 | 5.61% | 1.13% | 0.53% | 6.38% | 24.83 | Computer and Technology |
| GCO | GENESCO INC | 42.22 | 10.99% | 44.84% | 0.53% | 6.30% | 14.12 | Retail-Wholesale |
| LPG | DORIAN LPG LTD | 7.3 | -4.93% | -3.57% | 0.52% | 6.29% | N/A | Transportation |
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Brooks Automation (BRKS) is a leading worldwide provider of automation, vacuum, and instrumentation solutions for multiple markets including semiconductor manufacturing, life sciences, and clean energy. Their technologies, engineering competencies, and global service capabilities provide customers speed to market, and ensure high uptime and rapid response, which equate to superior value in their mission-critical controlled environments. Since 1978, they have been a leading partner to the global semiconductor manufacturing market and through product development initiatives and strategic business acquisitions; they have expanded their reach to meet the needs of customers in the life sciences industry, analytical & research markets, and clean energy solutions.
The company posted decent results last week. The Q4 2018 results showed that non-GAAP EPS was $0.40 in the quarter, representing 15% growth year over year. The EPS growth were driven by 14% revenue growth and operating margin expansion through leverage of operating expense. The positive operating margin improvement was largely offset by interest expense on new debt in the year.
For the year, the company also had decent results. Brooks had 19% year over year revenue growth driven by both business segments. Semiconductor Solutions, inclusive of the Cryogenics business, grew 19% for the year and was led by 25% year over year growth in automation product revenue. Life Sciences grew 32% for the year and was led by storage services growth of 31% year over year and the acquisition of 4titude. Life Science organic growth was 14% for the year. Non-GAAP Diluted EPS for the fiscal year was $1.57, an improvement of 27% year over year. The EPS growth was driven by 19% revenue growth and gross margin expansion, compared to 2017. Increased interest expense was largely offset by lower tax rates year over year.
Management was please with the results. CEO Steve Schwartz noted that the
2018 fiscal year was strong from start to finish and has charted a new path with transformative M&A agreements that are reshaping the company. The acquisition of GENEWIZ, which we completed last week, is expanding our reach in sample services to thousands of additional customers, supported by a highly talented global team. Further, we signed an agreement in August to sell our Semiconductor Cryogenics business and expect to complete the sale during our second fiscal quarter of 2019. We believe these transactions strengthen our growth portfolio and extend our position as the leading provider of life science sample services. Meanwhile we continued our strong operating performance in the semiconductor business and delivered yet another consecutive growth quarter in life sciences, yielding a 20% top-line growth for the year.
ValuEngine updated its recommendation from HOLD to BUY for Brooks Automation on 2018-11-27. Based on the information we have gathered and our resulting research, we feel that Brooks Automation has the probability to OUTPERFORM average market performance for the next year. The company exhibits ATTRACTIVE Sharpe Ratio and Momentum.
You can download a free copy of detailed report on Brooks Automation (BRKS) from the link below.
| ValuEngine Forecast | ||
| Target Price* |
Expected Return |
|
|---|---|---|
| 1-Month | 28.64 | 0.56% |
| 3-Month | 28.96 | 1.69% |
| 6-Month | 29.55 | 3.75% |
| 1-Year | 30.39 | 6.72% |
| 2-Year | 31.87 | 11.90% |
| 3-Year | 32.70 | 14.82% |
| Valuation & Rankings | |||
| Valuation | 7.77% overvalued | Valuation Rank(?) | 26 |
| 1-M Forecast Return | 0.56% | 1-M Forecast Return Rank | 87 |
| 12-M Return | 3.56% | Momentum Rank(?) | 72 |
| Sharpe Ratio | 0.61 | Sharpe Ratio Rank(?) | 89 |
| 5-Y Avg Annual Return | 23.38% | 5-Y Avg Annual Rtn Rank | 94 |
| Volatility | 38.10% | Volatility Rank(?) | 42 |
| Expected EPS Growth | -19.74% | EPS Growth Rank(?) | 10 |
| Market Cap (billions) | 1.92 | Size Rank | 71 |
| Trailing P/E Ratio | 22.48 | Trailing P/E Rank(?) | 50 |
| Forward P/E Ratio | 28.01 | Forward P/E Ratio Rank | 14 |
| PEG Ratio | n/a | PEG Ratio Rank | n/a |
| Price/Sales | 2.46 | Price/Sales Rank(?) | 40 |
| Market/Book | 5.30 | Market/Book Rank(?) | 24 |
| Beta | 1.09 | Beta Rank | 33 |
| Alpha | -0.16 | Alpha Rank | 37 |
DOWNLOAD A FREE SAMPLE OF OUR BROOKS AUTOMATION (BRKS) REPORT BY CLICKING HERE
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Steve Hach
Senior Editor
ValuEngine.Com