Universal Corp (UVV)

spreadsheetV1 (< 20) Submitted: 11/23/2009 1:27:24 AM : Start Price: $45.83 UVV Score: -0.13

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.

EclecticRecluse (75.43) Submitted: 11/17/2009 4:54:47 AM : Start Price: $46.08 UVV Score: -0.50

High Professional Opinion and Price Target

yooperking (91.22) Submitted: 9/22/2009 2:34:08 PM : Start Price: $42.44 UVV Score: +4.49

This is the best tobacco industry stock out there. As much as tobacco is taxed and despised in the U.S., it is promoted and accepted in other countries of the world. The U.S. cannot kill the industry no matter how much it tries. Of course, Democrats love the tax revenue to fund their pet projects.

AnomaLee2k9 (82.40) Submitted: 7/8/2009 7:28:53 PM : Start Price: $34.36 UVV Score: +7.61

Discover Price: $34.87
Duration: Short-term pick
Less than two weeks

Reasoning:
Consumer/Non-Cyclical
Relative out-performance.
Intermediate-term Uptrend
Recent short-term Uptrend

Disclosure: No position

zwalt99 (88.88) Submitted: 7/6/2009 8:06:53 PM : Start Price: $33.28 UVV Score: +12.46

Low leverage and great fundamentals -- both when comparing the share price with the income statement and balance sheet. Also, the company generates plenty of cash from operations to sustain the nice dividend.

The FDA can go ahead and regulate tobacco. A) Many people will choose to smoke regardless of any warning labels and B) much of the company's income comes from outside the U.S.

Staka (98.16) Submitted: 7/4/2009 6:31:27 AM : Start Price: $32.77 UVV Score: +14.60

Good value, close to book, 5% dividend, defensive sector. A bet for a continuation of the recession.

ResearchLover (73.98) Submitted: 6/11/2009 3:35:51 PM : Start Price: $36.70 UVV Score: +7.40

Analyst Upgrade.

dhtobey (94.27) Submitted: 5/11/2009 10:35:10 AM : Start Price: $32.88 UVV Score: +17.48

EMA Cross

ALPHADividend (92.18) Submitted: 4/16/2009 1:11:28 AM : Start Price: $30.03 UVV Score: +22.28

This company appears to offer a solid opportunity as of today (April 2009).
The company is trading below reported book value and is paying high dividends. Additionally the company operates outside of the FIRE (financial insurance real estate) sector of the economy, so chances are, what you see is what you get. I've personally screened this company to ensure it did not expand excessively during the hot years (2004-2008).
This company was found today via google screener with the following criteria:
atleast 100m market cap or more
has fallen more than 45% past 1yr
dividend payers @3% or more
atleast 25% institutionally held
price to book less than 1
have total debt/assets less than 100%
have total debt/equity less than 100%
personally screened to make sure the companies were not FIRE industries (financial/insurance/real estate), oil commodity related, industrial metal commodities related, sea shipping related
personally verified limitation on expansion during boom years (not excessive BS growth from '04-'08)

the resulting dividend companies to buy are:
AM, BRC, CBS, CBT, CDI, CSS, GLT, HRC, KELYA, LYTS, MEI, MWV, SXI, TKR, UVV

conversely I will be looking to short opportunities with opposite criteria.

This will be the primary focus of this profile, to seek & obtain alpha from long/short dividend opportunities across various industries.
- ALPHADividend

SarahGen (99.82) Submitted: 2/17/2009 12:15:12 PM : Start Price: $32.98 UVV Score: -2.80

A tobacco company with international presence, safe dividend yield - both look great for a start. Plus they're a tobacco leaf *supplier* so they're not looking at that margin squeeze from higher cigarette taxes that Philip Morris, RJR and Lorillard are looking at. I found UVV doing screens for a safe high yielder. Looks good to me.

TMFBigVice (95.84) Submitted: 8/5/2008 3:30:44 PM : Start Price: $49.69 UVV Score: +0.96

Universal Corp (UVV) is a new addition to the BigVice portfolio. I stumbled across it while screening for highly-rated tobacco stocks with good fundamentals using the CAPS screener and I'm glad I did. Universal Corp is essentially the lifeblood of big tobacco, which is a good position to be in.

Put simply, Universal buys, selects, finances and processes leaf tobacco in Africa, Brazil, and North America and sells the cured tobacco product to the likes of Altria, Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco and others to be rolled into cigarettes and other finished tobacco goods. It's main competitor is Alliance One International (AOI) and UVV believes it has a market share lead over AOI. UVV also happens to be the better investment of the two.

For one, UVV pays a dividend -- and a solid one (3.4% yield) at that. Moreover, it just marked 37 consecutive years of dividend increases. The balance sheet is also stronger at UVV -- interest coverage of 5.9x vs. 1.2x for AOI. UVV posted 11.1% return on equity over the past twelve months, up from 8.1% the previous year. Inventory is a major metric as you might imagine with fluctuations in crop yields and shipping patterns.

There's been a change at the CEO position this year, but the new CEO George Freeman III is an internal hire who has been with the company for over ten years.

Bottom line: this is a top-notch company with strong fundamentals in an enormous market that will be necessary and profitable for the foreseeable future. It might be a bumpy ride along the way, but this is a long-term buy candidate anyway.

Fair value: $63-$66

Todd

CVagts (95.33) Submitted: 5/28/2008 11:01:49 AM : Start Price: $46.87 UVV Score: +14.91

Tobacco is recession prone but not harmed if there isn't a recession, making the industry a good pick in the current market. Quarterly Earnings Growth (Yoy) is above 100%, PE sits at 12 and change, very cheap for any stock, let alone one in the billions. Market Cap prevents large unpredictable swings and the dividend of 3.4% is great.

In addition, The Street analysts rank it a buy, 4 stars from S&P analysts and Jaywalk Consensus is also buy.

optionhater (95.07) Submitted: 3/27/2008 10:25:53 AM : Start Price: $62.07 UVV Score: -12.49

sold off non-core businesses, paid down debt, re-purchased shares, litigation risk has deminished

spolack (22.25) Submitted: 3/25/2008 5:27:38 PM : Start Price: $62.14 UVV Score: -11.77

momentum riser

GGGilmore (59.02) Submitted: 3/25/2008 6:50:15 AM : Start Price: $61.11 UVV Score: -10.28

Tobacco is here to stay despite all the flurry of no smoking laws. Why? It brings in a lot of tax revenue and smokers, on average, die younger than none smokers, savings social security money and medicare and medicaid money. Don't be fooled by government rhetoric. If they wanted people to truly stop smoking they would outlaw it or raise taxes to $100 a pack. This is nearly recession proof. I know people who have money for their cigarettes but not their rent, car insurance, or utilities. While smoking may be on a slight decrease in the USA, it is on the increase on a world wide scale. Call me a cynic if you want. I just try and get past what people say and look at what people do. That is where the true is and it has served me well.

bdawg3496 (< 20) Submitted: 10/22/2007 11:52:45 AM : Start Price: $43.86 UVV Score: +26.99

people are addictted to tobacco