Brady Shares Jumped: What You Need to Know

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 safety and security specialist Brady (NYSE: BRC  ) were showing the all-clear sign to investors today, as they rose as much as 14% in intraday trading before settling down to a more moderate gain.

So what: When it comes to earnings season, absolute performance almost always takes a back seat to whether a company was able to top Wall Street's expectations. In Brady's case, that box was checked, and investors are obviously pumped about it.

For the quarter, revenue was up 6% from a year ago to $349.5 million, while adjusted net income rose 13.2% and earnings per share finished at $0.62. Analysts were looking for $0.59 in per-share profit on $338 million in sales.

Now what: Like virtually every other business out there, Brady's future results will hinge to a large extent on whether the economy can continue to chug forward. However, a steady approach to its business, solid management, and sensible capital allocation will be big boons to investors either way. And on that latter point, it's easy to love a management team that talks like this:

We are committed to putting our cash to work through a balanced approach of investing in organic growth opportunities, strategic acquisitions, and returning dividends to our shareholders and buying back Brady stock from time to time.

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