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 health and safety company MSA Safety Inc (MSA 1.24%) jumped as much as 10% today after announcing better than expected earnings.
So what: Fourth-quarter revenue rose 7% from a year ago to $311 million on the back of 13% local currency growth for core products. On the bottom line, net income jumped 29% to $32.7 million and earnings per share of $0.86 easily topped Wall Street's $0.71 per share expectation.
Now what: One big development in the quarter was completion of certification and beginning shipments for the G1 SCBA fire protection system. MSA will deal with the same challenges many companies are facing like currency headwinds and weak commodity markets, but new products like G1 SCBA should help drive healthy earnings in 2015.
This was a solid quarter and certainly better than Wall Street expected, but with shares trading at 22 times trailing earnings and little growth expected in the next two years I'd like to see shares settle down before jumping in. If shares pull back in coming weeks, I'd be interested, but I'll sit out today's move despite the earnings beat.
