Blyth, Inc. (BTH)

This met a high level screen to indicate a buy and strong outperform against its peers (other tickers in its industry). My 1st version of this spreadsheet devles deep into the company's balnace sheet and recent income statements, combined with other relevant price data for the company including insider/institutional holdings, short interest, debt levels, etc.
Testing capabilities of this 1st version of my automated, valuation spreadhseet matched with my personal criteria and see how it holds up.

Picking underperform.

Pitch: Because I live on the planet known as "Earth".

maybe I'm just a snob?

consumer spending on non-essentials will decrease due to the current and forward looking recession.

I should have known better than to go against the collective power of women getting happy selling each other junk. My wife lives for this stuff -- Pampered Chef, Silpada, Reliv...whatever it is, I should have known better.

Foolish. 10.

The bonds are junk...not sure if the candles are junk too, but I don't get the whole "selling at home" market. Thumb down.

Ahhh. . .the PE is 372+. . .all items require discretionary consumer spending. . .

price to sales is so low. Yield is very high. The sales could drop and this would still be a good buy.

Dividend of 10.3% looks to me like this one is grabbing some attention stock bottom was in january and has been on the move up since;25% in Feb.Also notable is volume is up by 80%.CEO just bought 90,000 shares I would say that speaks volumes also.Looks like this one could make extra bases to me.

Underperform

abitare - Wrong sector, wrong time to be losing money... dust collectors FAIL

1. P/E
2. Market CAP
3. 11% pop today
4. Ticker "designs, markets and distributes candles, decorative accessories, seasonal decorations and household convenience items, as well as tabletop lighting, accessories and chafing fuel for the Away From Home or foodservice trade."
5. Up 80% from 52 week low.
6. Down trend
7. Tenmile find

tenmiles recommendation

BB

I'm sorry? The P/E is what?

Trying to catch the readjustment following their reverse stock split (which was alternatively 1 to 4 or 1 to 3), Blyth jumped well over 400%. Figure that over excitement over their reduction of outstanding shares has significantly inflated stock value.

Potpourri of reasons to short this one - primary target audience is women who have more money than scents (ouch). Really, this one continues to be a slow motion train wreck - advise staying away.

From Moodys:

"The outlook revision reflects Moody's concern over continued material sales declines within the PartyLite U.S. business, due to a deteriorating consultant count, lower consultant productivity, weak discretionary spending and increased competition from other direct sellers," said Moody's Vice President Janice Hofferber

you've gotta be kidding.