Avery Dennison completed a triple play in the fourth quarter: a positive earnings surprise, a positive sales surprise, and strong management guidance. This prompted analysts to revise their estimates higher for both 2013 and 2014, sending the stock to a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock. Although shares have risen more than 10% off the strong quarter, valuations still look very reasonable. So shares of Avery Dennison have plenty of room to continue marching higher. Avery Dennison manufactures labeling and packaging materials for a wide variety of industries around the globe. It reports its results in three segments: -Pressure-sensitive Materials: 71% of total sales -Retail Branding & Information Solutions: 25% -Other Specialty Converting Businesses: 4% Pressure-sensitive materials consist primarily of papers, plastic films, metal foils and fabrics, which are coated with special adhesives, and then laminated with specially coated backing papers and films. These label and packaging materials are sold worldwide to label printers and converters for labeling, decorating, fastening, electronic data processing and special applications in the home and personal care, beer and beverage, durables, pharmaceutical, wine and spirits, and food market segments. The Retail Branding & Information Solutions segment makes a wide variety of brand identification and information management products for retailers, apparel manufacturers, distributors and industrial customers around the globe. Its brand identification products include woven and printed labels, graphic tags and barcode tags, and its information management products include price tickets, carton labels, RFID tags and printing applications. Avery Dennison was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in Pasadena, California. It has a market cap of $4.0 billion. Special Offer: We asked some of the most successful investors in the country to name their #1 pick for 2013. Get details on their top 10 stocks in this free report, Forbes Top Stocks for 2013…10 to Buy Now. Solid Fourth Quarter Results Avery Dennison delivered better-than-expected Q4 results on January 30. Earnings per share came in at 54 cents, well ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 49 cents. It was a 50% increase over the same quarter in 2011. Net sales rose 5% to $1.532 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.486 billion. Organic sales growth was even better at 7%. The Pressure-sensitive Materials segment saw organic top-line growth of 6% while sales in Retail Branding & Information Solutions jumped 10%, driven by increased demand from U.S. and European retailers and brands, including accelerating RFID adoption. Meanwhile, the adjusted operating margin expanded 170 basis points to 6.6%. Bullish Guidance Following strong Q4 results, management provided encouraging guidance for 2013. The company expects adjusted EPS from continuing operations of $2.40 to $2.80 in 2013, which prompted analysts to revise their estimates higher. The ZacksConsensus Estimate for 2013 is now $2.57, up from $2.45 before the Q4 release. This represents 23% growth over 2012 EPS. The 2014 consensus increased too, rising 15 cents to $2.86. This corresponds with 12% annual EPS growth. It is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock. Valuation Shares of AVY are up …read more
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