BASI - not rateable - for now
August 31, 2007
– Comments (3)
In the theme of my love biotechnology support companies, I'd like to comment on a promising microcap. Too little for CAPS today, but perhaps I can rate this sometime.
BioAnalytical Systems (Nasdaq: BASI)
Bioanalytical Systems, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides contract development services and research equipment to pharmaceutical, medical research, and biotechnology companies and institutions worldwide.
More here:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=BASI
http://www.bioanalytical.com/
Market cap of only 33.4M (and add another 11M debt to the EV).
Effectively they are a smaller competitor of companies like CRL.
At first glance the financials are relatively blah. Sales are steady, but not growing too rapidly. Margins may have been getting a bit squeezed.
So what's to like - well the company, and by that I mean the people, and by that I mean - I'm a satisfied customer. As still a bit of a neophyte to the drug development world, this group was among the most professional, courteous, and helpful CROs I have worked with. I was not a primary contact on most of the programs, but was involved with all our contracts with them, and I really don't have a bad thing to say about them.
Word of mouth means a lot in this industry - and I have a hard time imagining that this company won't benefit from that down the road. Also, while they may look pricey on a P/E ratio, having just been profitable recently on a TTM basis, they currently sell at only 1X sales, and no major customer accounts for more than 10% of the business (Pfizer 2006 - 7.3% from 10k). BASI must be on someones radar as a potential acquisition.
Small caps are risky and micocaps even more so! Small companies can get killed by things as minor as a key employee departure. But I like the odds on these guys.
I don't own BASI, and don't normally play out my investing line invest into this risk well, but perhaps I'll take a flyer on this one sometime.
Zz
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