K-Tron International, Inc. (KTII)

K-Tron was a Motlley Fool Hidden Gems selection a month or so ago. I've archived my copy, but flagged them as worth of consideration, (something I do less than 10% of the time on HG recommendations). K-Tron certainly fits the definition of "boring" and would appear to be in an area highly impacted by an ecoomic slowdown. It's production of material handling equipment did suffer from the economic slowdown, but not as much as one might have imagined. K-Tron has built a diversified product in a global footprint, that helps reduce manpower and improves logistics for a variety of companies. It's larger, multi-millioin dollar equipment, labeled as "size reduction" products is used to smash very large things into very small things for transporation, such as coal, crushers, pulpers, etc. Founded in 1964, it has been growing steadily. K-Tron, (as also pointed out by HG) has only about 2.5 Million shares outstanding with only 5-8 thousand trading hands on a give day, so is an excellent example of LIMIT ORDERS! K-Tron has had an exceptional 5 year climb/growth until the recession took it down with everything else. It peaked around $155 per share and just crossed back above $100. Sporting a P/B of just over 2, it's not "cheap", but it continues to show 10% profit and 15% operating margins even in today's world. Cash is on the increase and debt down about 10% yoy. I think K-Tron has the potential to continue producing market crushing returns and stability of this equity in good and moderately bad times seems worth a look.

No analyst coverage - won't always be that way. 5-year annual growth rate of 35.2% - market cap under $300 mil - return on equity greater than 15%.