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 Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) rose on Monday on rumors that the company is in talks to sell itself. Back in September, Bloomberg reported that Computer Sciences was exploring a leveraged buyout. Shares hit a new 52-week high today, up as much as 9.5%. As of 3 p.m., shares had settled a bit, still up 6.8%.
So what: According to the rumors, Computer Sciences is looking at selling itself in a two-part deal. Its public sector business would be bought by private equity firms, while its corporate IT services business would be acquired by an unnamed foreign entity. Computer Sciences Corporation has attempted to sell itself before, both in 2005 and 2006. Both times, nothing came from the effort.
Now what: Computer Sciences has been struggling will falling revenue since 2009, and its latest quarter continued that trend. Despite this, the stock has surged over the past three years, more than doubling since the beginning of 2012. This makes any potential buyout more expensive than it would have been a few years ago.
Computer Sciences is currently engaged in a turnaround effort, but with revenue still falling, it's not clear how much progress has been made. Computer Sciences has remained profitable, adjusting for one-time items, and it trades for about 15.5 times the average analyst earnings estimate for fiscal 2015, which ends in March.
With the public sector business performing far better than the rest of the company, splitting them up could make sense. Whether a buyout actually happens, though, is anyone's guess.
