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“U.S. Navy Supplier—a Company with NO Competitors—Could Bring You Another 77% Profits in the Next 10 Months”

Sniffing out the monopolist teased by Charles Mizrahi's Hidden Values Alert

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, October 17, 2012

I hope the folks at the Federal Trade Commission aren’t reading today, because I have to make a confession: I start to feel all squishy inside when I think of monopolies.

After all, what could be better as an investor? A company that is the only supplier of its product, with plenty of demand and the ability to set their own price? Mmmm, just gives you shivers. Unless you’re the customer, of course.

And if that particular product happens to be one where the customer is extremely price-insensitive, too, well, it’s all I can do stay sitting upright.

So you can see why the recent teaser for Charles Mizrahi’s Hidden Values Alert caught our eye — it wasn’t just that a bunch of eager readers asked your friendly neighborhood Gumshoe to review it (though that always helps), it was that it’s a monopoly company and their customer is the U.S. Military, the folks who are so price-insensitive that they famously shelled out hundreds of dollars for toilet seats (I know that story’s partly apocryphal, but there’s some underlying truth) … which makes us dream that if this story pans out we ought to be able to refill our toilet paper dispenser here at Gumshoe HQ with $100 bills (the $20 bills we use now are just too scratchy, I’m afraid).

And yes, I know, the story never pans out quite like we dream … but still, let’s figure out who he’s teasing us about, shall we? Here’s a taste of the ad that got our attention:

“This U.S. Navy Supplier—a Company with NO Competitors— Could Bring You Another 77% Profits in the Next 10 Months

“This company’s shares have risen steadily over the last 10 months. But, as you’ll see, its share price could quickly double or triple in the months ahead!”

Doubling and tripling are both lovely, of course. So what’s the story? Well, the basic pitch is that the world is dangerous and growing more unstable (North Korea, Iran, embassy attacks, Israel, Syria, etc.), and that the first line of defense for the US is our distributed and flexible military presence in the world that’s made possible, in large part, by our aircraft carriers.

“So what is the United States military doing to protect U.S. citizens from the many threats all over the globe?

“Here’s our first line of defense.

“The United States Navy has ships strategically positioned all over the globe.

“In particular, the Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers… are this nation’s first line of defense….

“… we all hope for peace across the globe – the simple fact of the matter is that our need for vigilance is not going away.

“And the aircraft carriers currently deployed by the U.S. Navy actually have one thing in common…

“They’re all built – and maintained – by a single company.

“Today I’m writing you about this unique company – the only one of its kind on the planet – to show how its ‘monopoly’ status actually presents an enormous profit opportunity for those investors who act quickly.

“This single stock is virtually certain to provide investors with a steady stream of double- or triple-digit profits in the months and years ahead.”

Need a break to do your little monopoly dance? It’s OK, we’ll wait.

Ready? OK, here are some more specific clues from the ad:

  • “Sole Supplier — This one-of-a-kind company is the sole supplier to the U.S. Navy for its most important products. And for 70% of the company’s $6.6 billion annual revenue stream…they have NO competitors!
  • Future Earnings are Virtually Guaranteed — The company—at this very minute—has a backlog of $16.3 billion. That’s three years’ worth of sales…guaranteed!
  • Improved Profitability—The company is about to shed a number of low-margin contracts and has replacement work—at double the profit margin—already on the books.

“Simply put—the floodgates are about to open for this company when it comes to profitability.

“It’s virtually guaranteed—the company simply just has to exist over the next five years…and its bottom line will change dramatically.”

The argument from Mizrahi is that the company was spun off from some other firm, and that in the spinoff they were saddled with unprofitable contracts — contracts that are rolling off over the next three years and will provide “supercharged” returns when new contracts take their place.

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Which is part of a trend that frequently profits individual investors and value investors: spinoffs are often undervalued by the marketplace, and they often outperform the market over time. There are any number of reasons for that, but the basic spiel you’ll hear from folks is that spinoffs are almost always sold right away by big investors, since they’re interested in the larger company that they bought in the first place, and the spun-off company is usually small and misunderstood and underfollowed, with no analysts or big investors interested so the price dips after the shares are spun … but it also often has the opportunity to turn things around with a renewed focus on operations that were ignored when it was hiding in a parent’s petticoat.

Of course, we all leave our children with baggage — and corporations are no different, so they often saddle spinoffs with too much debt, or with bad contracts, or whatever else they’re trying to get rid of, so the “on average, spinoffs are good” bit certainly doesn’t mean it works out every time.

Back on point though — which stock is this? A few more clues:

“In fact, one highly respected analyst recently upgraded this stock—and forecast ‘double-digit earnings growth for the next three years’—meaning that it’s only a matter of time before others on Wall Street begin to take notice and drive this stock higher….

“At this very moment, the United States Navy has eleven aircraft carriers in active service all over the globe.

“The company I’m writing you about today is the sole builder of U. S. Navy aircraft carriers….

“This company is also the exclusive provider of refueling services for nuclear-powered aircraft carriers….

“We’re talking about a company with a history that dates back more than 125 years…

“And a company that gets more than 70% of its $6.6 billion annual revenue stream from business where they literally have no competition….

“When you invest in this company, you’re buying into a backlog of $16.3 billion…and that’s roughly equivalent of three years’ worth of sales.”

And apparently they build more than just aircraft carriers …

“not only the sole supplier of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers…but they’re also the largest supplier of U.S. Navy surface combatants.

“They’ve built 70 percent of the U.S. Navy’s entire fleet of warships.

“Missile destroyers…amphibious ships…aircraft carriers…nuclear-powered carriers…nuclear attack submarines…guided missile destroyers…assault ships…Coast Guard National Security Cutters…and fleet support services…this company does it all….”

Finally, we get a bit more info on those “bad contracts” that are rolling off, providing a catalyst for increasing margins and a stronger share price:

“One analyst recently declared that the ‘low margin days are over’ for this company.

“And that same analyst went on to write, ‘We are raising our rating…as we believe earnings risk from low-margin ‘problem programs’ is rapidly declining. (This) should drive double-digit earnings growth for the company overall for the next three years, we believe.’

“These ‘problem programs’ are estimated to represent roughly 16% of the company’s sales in 2012…and this is projected to decline to 8% in 2013…and 0% in 2015.

“The analyst went on to project an increase in margins of more than 50% for this company over the next three years!”

OK, so … improving margins, continued demand, a strong partner in the US military (assuming, of course, that the threatened defense cuts don’t go through … or that they don’t impact big-ticket Navy items particularly hard if they do go through) … what company is this?

Well, we toss all that into the ol’ Thinkolator and learn that this is … Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)

Which was spun off from Northrop Grumman (NOC) about a year and a half ago, and which does indeed build many of the surface ships and maintain and refuel all the aircraft carriers for the U.S. Navy. It’s a “big small company” with a market cap of about $2 billion, and they’re expected to grow earnings quite abruptly next year and then settle in for low-double-digit growth over the coming several years, which seems reasonable for a company that, if you believe the analyst estimates, trades at a forward PE of about 10. They’re expected to earn about $3.30 this year, and hit about half that number in the first two quarters, so the current valuation is more like 12 times earnings. The average analyst rating is slightly better than “hold”, they’ve got quite a bit of debt but it’s easily manageable at their current earnings rate, and they don’t pay a dividend.

This is an intriguing one, I’d say, though I hadn’t ever heard of the company before today. I’m not an expert on the Navy’s procurement practices, (that’s an understatement), but I do like that they have a substantial revenue base built in thanks to long-term projects — and that they have the contract to refuel aircraft carriers, which should provide a baseline of work over time if they keep that contract (refueling aircraft carriers is usually done during a lengthy overhaul process that might take up to three years — they don’t have to do it often, these massive floating cities might go 10-25 years between scheduled overhaul/refuelings).

And I do like the low forward valuation, which indicates that there might be some unrecognized value in these shares even after a nice run-up — but clearly, major long-term growth would depend on increasing investment by the Navy and Coast Guard into renewing and expanding the US fleet, which I guess is the larger “big picture” question, one that is inextricably tied both to the rise of China (which is building its first aircraft carrier now) and to both long-term and short-term US budget considerations. We still spend multiples of any other country, which has been true since before the Soviet Union fell, and will do so even if sequestration stays in place in its current form — but big ticket items like new ships can easily become political and budgetary footballs, even if, thanks to long term deals, cuts don’t hit the bottom lines of the suppliers right away.

Right now the big picture drivers for the next several years for HII are aircraft carriers (two new Ford class carriers built over next eight years, first in that new class, and two refueled/overhauled over the next four years, along with a big wave of decommissioning/deactivation of the aging fleet of carriers that will retire) and nuclear submarines (they’re building half of the latest Virginia class subs), so Huntington Ingalls Industries will absolutely be impacted if there are major changes, delays, new orders, or cancellations in those areas, though they also can and do build and design several other major vessels.

There’s a good article on the arguments about future defense spending here, particularly as it pertains to the big ticket items that would significantly impact the business of HII’s shipyards over the coming decades, like aircraft carriers and destroyers. There’s also political posturing over big-ticket items like these, with Romney recently even promising specific increases in the number of major ships the Navy will order (a promise he made while fishing for votes in Virginia Beach, home turf of some of the Navy’s major shipyards … naturally). At the moment, the budget for the Department of Defense for the next five years is generally expected to waver between $650-700 billion a year, and HII is essentially a one-customer company with annual revenues in the neighborhood of $6.5 billion, so you can shorthand that to say that they’re currently getting about 1% of the defense budget. You can see their latest investor presentation here from last month, it includes the major programs and their projections.

HII expects to be able to improve margins and to generate more than 10% in annual revenue growth, based on their new contracts and their large programs (including next-generation amphibious assault ships for the Marines, in addition to those large carrier and sub projects), and they are the sole supplier for many of these programs (particularly the carriers), so there’s a lot to like in the numbers and forecasts for Huntington Ingalls — but the overhang of military sequestration is likely to hit the shares if people think the massive defense cuts scheduled for January 1 will really happen (I’d argue that investors expect those cuts not to happen right now), so if you’re a gambler and like the long-term prospects for HII you might want to consider looking for a more opportunistic buy point if you agree that there’s a likelihood that fear of massive defense cuts will hit HII investors over the next two months — my guess is that these cuts wouldn’t have a huge impact on HII given the big lead time on their projects, and the commitment to the new carrier class, but that’s a guess and it would certainly hit them to at least some degree … with the chance that it hits the stock price much harder than it hits the income statement. Of course, if for some reason Romney wins in a landslide and manages to wrest Congress to his will and come up with some more money and fix the budget immediately next year, perhaps he really will almost double the order book for Navy contractors right away and make HII investors even more flush, though I wouldn’t necessarily hold my breath on that.

So what do you think? Clearly a strong company in the midst of a nice turnaround in the profitability of their programs, with a monopoly position and a strong customer, but they have also already risen quite a bit on that success and I think there are substantial risks that there will be either real or perceived pressure as defense budget debates call attention to major programs in the short term, and long-term defense pending priorities in the longer term. That’s my two cents … but it’s your money, so what do you think? Am I just being greedy hoping for a better price when investors panic about the budget, or are the risks too high for the stock at this price? Or are you just not interested in investing in the builders of war machines? Let us know if HII is right for you by sharing your thoughts in a comment below.

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Bill Helton
Member
Bill Helton
October 17, 2012 1:53 pm

Aircraft carriers and submarines are both very large impact items on the Navy shipbuilding budget and as such in budget cuts are very attractive targets.

michael_v
michael_v
October 17, 2012 4:25 pm

I owned this for about a year after its spin from NOC. Glad to see it has done so well. It was brought to my attention by Bill Mitchell, who publishes the Spinoffs and Reorganizations newsletter (which I still subscribe to). I may move back into it if the anticipated dip materializes. Probably not at the current price.

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Pamela Bloom
Member
Pamela Bloom
October 17, 2012 5:27 pm
Reply to  michael_v

I wouldn’t touch this with a ten foot barge pole! !

Phil A.
Guest
Phil A.
October 17, 2012 7:37 pm

Nice job Travis. This sounds like an interesting one.
1. What’s not to like about a monopoly position, providing a complete service to design, build, maintain, and refuel such a large entity.
2. Having such exclusivity gives them the benefit of proprietary design elements that they can only have control over.
3. Our Government is a great customer–pays well and dependably. Can’t hurt the cash flow, especially with guarantees of increases, year-to-year, in the contracts and easy acceptance, if there are overruns on construction.
4. The best is that it is a political win-win. No matter who is president, positions are firm by either party to maintain our seniority in defense. Also, too, the idea of jobs with an American company, will make any president look good.
It’s a buy on the dips, for me, even if they are nibbles, at first.

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Peter9810
Member
Peter9810
October 17, 2012 11:54 pm

Travis, You are to be commended for your work.
The premis is reasonable, but when does a monopoly last for ever?
There are certainly others who would like to bid.
BTW…If sequestration hits the Carrier Fleet, We will need to invest no more.
Federal Reserve Bank, Liberty Street, NYC.????
LuvPH.

Eddy
Guest
Eddy
October 18, 2012 8:34 am

Somewhere I read that the Navy was to be the least affected branch of the military with respect to budget-cuts (which, themselves, could be the object of lip-service.

mellowmellow1
mellowmellow1
October 18, 2012 1:29 pm

Hmmmm. Interesting. One probable buy signal is the burgeoning Chinese Navy, and possible territorial squabbles with Japan and the Phillippines.

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Paul Gergen
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Paul Gergen
October 20, 2012 6:30 am

Gov Romney is correct, you need a powerful Navy to protect your commerce and project power around the globe as a well functioning Navy is far more cost efficient and effective than the old style thinking of having the hundreds of Army / Air Force bases around the world. What the Navy can do today is truly awesome as compared to 30 years ago.

John Wilsdon
Member
October 20, 2012 9:05 pm

There isn’t anything much more beautiful than an aircraft carrier – they’re fast, they’re sleek, and they can pack a big punch. However, as far as what the parties will support, there may be a bit of a misunderstanding (I’ve ridden one for a year before you snicker). When it comes to budget cutting, a carrier is actually one of the first things either political party may think of. First off, we have a powerful carrier Navy. It outshines anything on the globe. Retrofitting an aging carrier is something that can be done much more modestly. These behemoths, though perhaps 20 or 30 years old are still very capable in this world. The one I rode was decommissioned after 40 years and still could have served quite well if not for wanting bigger, better, faster – oh, and more shipyard jobs. I like a new carrier as much as the next guy, but when China has 1, while Britain has a few, France has some, and Russia can barely send a cruiser around the world, I think the hatchet can fall on the future carrier design quite easily.
So just a suggestion when analyzing this stock – check out what else it does for income before betting the farm. (Confession: Deep, deep down inside, the kid in me wants to see that new carrier and its task force).

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Mrs. Ratfire
Member
October 23, 2012 9:54 am

This sounds interesting to me. I also added NOC to the watch list as NOC will go hand and hand with HII. Regarding the monopoly statement. This is frequently true in specialty items. Where the competition will happen is in the building of the components of the ship, but not the entire ship. Shipyards with this capacity are often the only one. A component can be very large- and there are loads of them on this. But the place to actually build something this size is limited. I live on the Great Lakes and am in the welding, fabrication, machining business. Great Lakes Freighters are huge- the dock space to even moor them up for the winter is limited. One company may own or lease many vessels- tugs, barges, freighters. They will disperse those vessels through out the Great Lakes docks that are large enough and pay rent all winter, even very HUGE companies do not have enough of their own dock space for the winter- imagine- 19 vessels tied up somewhere of that size-no one has that kind of dock space. The ship drives- they will take it where they can get a spot or the repairs they need. MOST need repairs- if the hull needs repair it must go into dry dock at a Shipyard. A freighter will cost 50,000 a day in RENT before a solitary repair is even done! (This rate varies by size of boat), then comes the millions they will spend in repairs. There are also huge docks to tie up that are not dry dock, they have repair companies in the area to handle everything from Bach to Rock (I am one of those companies). My point is, it does not surprise me at all that the specifications of the Navy can only be met with certain vendors. It is not uncommon on BIG jobs at all. The competitive pricing comes in when the blue prints go out for all of the component pricing -some will be handled by the Navy and some by the ship builder and others, to other companies. I bid on one of these, Navy Ship was to be built on the coast, I am at the Great Lakes, our bid was submitted to a private engineering firm who flew in from the coast to meet us. Well, they did not get the bid- and oddly enough they designed this part of the ship we were bidding on. (I cannot say more or the men in black will come and arrest me!) I certainly am interested, the part that is not good is a lack of history on the stock as it has not been traded for many years. Not sure where I see the buy in….will be looking for other evaluations in this forum. Does anyone have a clue what there next earnings report will be? If it exceeds earnings report can we make a quick buck and say bye-bye?

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tou0033a
tou0033a
October 23, 2012 1:13 pm

yahoo finance says the next earning date for (HII) is nov 8.
i listened to romney talk about strengthening the navy if he becomes elected. should we be taking a much closer look at this one if he does indeed become the next president?

kip klein
Guest
kip klein
October 23, 2012 1:27 pm

Aaron what they say and what they do are two different things. We still don’t have our social security lock boxes. I can’t see either candidate being able to go spend happy on ships.

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tou0033a
tou0033a
October 24, 2012 2:56 am

yeah, your probably right. i guess we’ll just have to wait and see. its an interesting one none the less.

Jack Edwards
Guest
Jack Edwards
December 20, 2012 11:47 am

I will be one of many looking towards the dips and rises of this company, HII. However, three things make me a bit reluctant to immediately jump in:
first, that the information here is already old, speaking of the possibility of Romney’s win in the November election, which we know didn’t happen;
Second, that the “fiscal cliff” still sits ahead of us, , in late December, with its automatic cuts if the Congress and President do not come to an agreement, which looks more and more likely;
and Third, that President Obama has already indicated that he will cut defense budgets no matter what else happens.
Nevertheless, I will put this on my high-priority watch list. One never knows, that proverbial flying pig may yet show up on our radar screens in terms of an agreement that puts HII into its profitability picture as indicated. Worth watching.

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getmenews
Member
getmenews
December 23, 2012 2:10 am

Like everything else, it is time to short the markets

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Jeremy Woodson
Member
Jeremy Woodson
July 30, 2013 11:30 am

Did the budget cuts affect spending on defense and US Navy Spending?

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