Titan Shares Popped: What You Need to Know (TWI)

Titan Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of tire maker Titan International (NYSE: TWI ) were rolling along today, gaining as much as 13% in intraday trading after the company reported fourth-quarter results.

So what: Titan doesn't make wimpy tires for your economy-sized sedan, it makes serious tires for serious, off-road work like mining and agriculture and sells those tires to folks like Deere and AGCO. And it was strength in those industry groups that helped Titan ride roughshod over analysts' estimates. For the quarter, the Wall Street know-it-alls were looking for earnings per share of $0.05 on sales of $194 million. Titan easily topped both marks with sales of $233 million and EPS -- excluding one-time items -- of $0.16.

Now what: Looking ahead, the company is excited about its prospects abroad, particularly after signing an agreement with Goodyear for its farm tire business in South America, Europe, Africa, and Eastern Europe. The company will also likely have a nice tailwind if commodity prices continue to march higher. Balancing all of that out in investors' eyes, though, are some issues that the company has had with the United Steelworkers and its spotty record of producing profits. Wall Street is looking for a strong turnaround, with expected 2011 earnings per share of $0.68, but the stock still looks a bit pricey to this Fool.

Want to keep up to date on Titan International? Add it to your watchlist.

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