Q: Have owned NWC for many years - it always paid a decent dividend but the share price has acted like a bond proxy. Now it seems like it's price has increased a dollar a day for the last few weeks. Has management made major operating changes or are there other reasons for the share price increase.
5i Research Answer:
There has been no company news in more than two months. Lower interest rates have likely helped sentiment. It did get some broker upgrades in September. But consensus calls for essentially flat EPS growth next year, so its 37% YTD gain is a little bit of an outlier. Still, the stock is not expensive relative to the market, at 15X earnings. Its last quarter (Q2) did beat estimates (EPS by 11%) so investors may be anticipating another beat.