Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Bidz.com (BIDZ) IPO Snack
Just shows it always pays to check. I expected Bidz.com, an online jewelry auctioneer, to be a money loser fighting for survival, since sloppy internet models are not exactly new, there are many auctioneers that have come and gone, and jewelry sales are competitive. But they are refreshingly responsible, and have been net-income profitable or break-even for at least 9 sequential quarters (prospectus, page 33). Most of those quarters it was just a penny or two, but the last two were $0.08 and $0.14/share. Their revenue seems to go in stair-steps: They were doing about $15M/quarter, then increased to about $20M/quarter, and in the most recent 2 quarters jumped again to about $33M/quarter. That is likely due to a greater customer purchasing during the Christmas season (when the step up occurs), but the interesting feature is that the increased revenue level persists for the remainder of the following year. That may just be a direct return on the somewhat increased marketing budgets, but it's good regardless of the reason. In short, they are showing nice consistent growth.
For FY 2005, they had a gross margin of 21% (19.3M/$90.6M), OP margin (operating earnings/rev) of 3% ($2.7M/$90.6M) and the more important OOP margin (operating earnings/gross profit) of 14% ($2.7M/$19.3M). For Q1 2006 they had a gross margin of 26% ($9.18M/$34.7M), OP margin of 10% ($3.37M/$34.7M), and OOP margin of 37% ($3.37M/$9.18M). So they have had some pretty serious margin expansion, just what we like.
In terms of absolute numbers and Y/Y returns, they had more operating earnings in Q1 2006 than for all of 2005 ($3.37M vs. $2.71M). Annualizing that latest number would give them $13M operating earnings in 2006, for a ca. $10M Y/Y increase. Almost all (98%) of operating earnings drop to the bottom line.
With ca. 24M shares outstanding, that gives them a projected 2006 operating EPS of $0.54 ($13M/24M). We don't know whether they will price attractively or not, but they have second tier underwriters and it is a $57M deal, so the chances are reasonably good that they may be under-followed. We wouldn't pay much of a market premium for them, but we do find them interesting.
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6:18 PM
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does anyone know when they come out? They seem like a great company...one to watch
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# posted by 
: 16 May, 2006 10:59
: 16 May, 2006 10:59<< Home
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