Recs

5

5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: Spartan Motors

Watch stocks you care about

The single, easiest way to keep track of all the stocks that matter...

Your own personalized stock watchlist!

It's a 100% FREE Motley Fool service...

Click Here Now

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, vehicle chassis and bodies specialist Spartan Motors (Nasdaq: SPAR  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Spartan's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Spartan facts

Headquarters (Founded) Charlotte, Mich. (1975)
Market Cap $187.4 million
Industry Auto parts and equipment
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $470.8 million
Management CEO John Sztykiel (since 2002)
CFO Joseph Nowicki (since 2009)
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) 14.4%
Cash/Debt $16.74 million / $15.25 million
Dividend Yield 1.7%
Competitors Oshkosh (NYSE: OSK  )

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 96% of the 631 members who have rated Spartan believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include edfox44 and All-Star Hotpicks101, who is ranked in the top 10% of our community.

Earlier this year, edfox44 tapped Spartan as a good bet to bounce back: "In the current business climate, delivery truck and fire equipment purchases are being postponed. When business turns on, demand for Spartan's products will accelerate. The timing of recent entry into the delivery truck market will pay off."

Spartan's small size and cheapish valuation continue to support its five-star CAPS status. Currently, Spartan's price-to-cash flow (5.1) is in line with recent "Rising Star" recommendation Oshkosh (5.2) and Navistar International (NYSE: NAV  ) (4.3), and at a clear discount to big-cap truck play PACCAR (Nasdaq: PCAR  ) (12.3).

CAPS All-Star Hotpicks101 elaborates:

It's a small cap. It's cyclical. It's trading at low valuations to it's forward p/e. I just read their Q3 transcript and it seems overall pretty upbeat. Overall if the economy continues to improve and as consumer confidence gains (very important for RV sales apparently) this stock should do very well. I can easily see this stock around $8 in less then a year and a potential downside to near it's 52 week lows if market turns.

What do you think about Spartan, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Owning exceptional stocks is a surefire way to secure your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to find them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!  

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. PACCAR is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.

True to its name, The Motley Fool is made up of a motley assortment of writers and analysts, each with a unique perspective; sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree, but we all believe in the power of learning from each other through our Foolish community. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.


Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

  • Report this Comment On December 22, 2010, at 8:11 PM, SteveTheInvestor wrote:

    I'm becoming something of a believer in taking profits from time to time. I have held SPAR for about 7 months and sold yesterday at just under $7.00 for a 40% gain. I'm not yet comfortable with the economy and SPAR is rather dependent on spending by both consumers and government.

    I may have sold too soon, but time will tell. I do note that SPAR has recently dropped from 5 stars to 4. Perhaps others are getting a little nervous as well.

Add your comment.

Compare Brokers

Fool Disclosure

DocumentId: 1396215, ~/Articles/ArticleHandler.aspx, 5/26/2012 3:30:43 AM

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.

Sending report...

Today's Market

updated 6 hours ago Sponsored by:
DOW 12,454.83 -74.92 -0.60%
S&P 500 1,317.82 -2.86 -0.22%
NASD 2,837.53 -1.85 -0.07%

Create My Watchlist

Go to My Watchlist

You don't seem to be following any stocks yet!

Better investing starts with a watchlist. Now you can create a personalized watchlist and get immediate access to the personalized information you need to make successful investing decisions.

Data delayed up to 5 minutes

Related Tickers

5/25/2012 4:00 PM
PCAR $38.35 Down -0.15 -0.39%
PACCAR Inc CAPS Rating: ****
SPAR $4.20 Down -0.02 -0.47%
Spartan Motors, In… CAPS Rating: ****
NAV $28.11 Up +0.07 +0.25%
Navistar Internati… CAPS Rating: **
OSK $20.85 Down -0.30 -1.42%
Oshkosh Corporatio… CAPS Rating: ***

Advertisement