Drink up, thirsty investors -- refreshment's on its way. Natural- and energy-drink maker Hansen Natural (Nasdaq: HANS ) finally reports its "sales and preliminary selected financial information for the first quarter of 2007" on Monday.
After the news comes out, we'll have time aplenty to dissect it. But in these few hours before we begin obsessing over Hansen's short-term progress, let's take a moment to review what investors think about it as a long-term investment. Our tool in this endeavor: Motley Fool CAPS, where we poll more than 28,000 investors for their views on well more than 4,000 companies, Hansen among them. Here's what Fools have to say about the company.
Up or down?
More than 900 investors have submitted opinions on Hansen. The verdict: kinda flat.
Typically for CAPS, approval ratings for the company score in the upper 80th decile among both investors at large and our CAPS All-Stars. But while 88% might get you a B+ in school, it's just par for the course on CAPS, earning Hansen only three out of a possible five stars.
Within a generally bubbly CAPS peer group, Hansen sinks toward the bottom:
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Soft Drinks Group
|
CAPS Rating
|
|
Coke (NYSE: KO )
|
****
|
|
PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP )
|
****
|
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Cadbury Schweppes (NYSE: CSG )
|
****
|
|
National Beverage (AMEX: FIZ )
|
****
|
|
Hansen Natural
|
***
|
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Jamba (Nasdaq: JMBA )
|
***
|
|
Jones Soda (Nasdaq: JSDA )
|
**
|
Wall Street vs. Main Street
Wall Street thinks much like everyone else on this one. Of the five professional investors we track, four rate Hansen a buy, and just one calls it a sell. That's pretty charitable, considering that the stock underperformed the S&P 500 by more than seven percentage points over the last 52 weeks.
Bull pitch
Take a "great growth story," with "new brands" and "new products." Add in "analyst downgrades" that have "moved an overpriced company into reasonable territory," shake well, and you'll see why some investors remain bullish on Hansen despite its failure to live up to its billing as a consistent "earnings beater" in each of the last two quarters.
Bear pitch
Now that its P/E ratio has fallen from the heavens, bears cite primarily business-related issues with Hansen. For instance, "their shelf space is getting crowded" and it's "saturating its markets," even as "competitors abound." One bear sums up the whole thesis thusly: "#1 indicator shelf space at grocery and freezer organization at gas stations. Hansen's product is being pushed aside by big players in this field coke, pepsi, starbucks, red bull."
Who said that?
To learn who these Foolish bulls and bears are and see to see more CAPS pitches on Hansen, just click here.
Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. You can find him on CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handle TMFDitty, where he's currently ranked 351st out of more than 28,000 raters. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
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