This is part of The Motley Fool's annual "Stocks for Mom" special.
Right Management Consultants
Trading at $12.70 as of May 2, 2003
I know that mothers never like to be wrong, but companies can't help it. They're wrong -- a lot. They can hire way too many employees when the future looks bright. They can botch a business plan. Yet even if a company executes flawlessly, sometimes the economy can work against it. In short, for every wrong there's a Right.
Right Management Consultants
Layoffs are a trying time for any company. There is a certain amount of respect and guidance that should be reserved for those being let go while morale needs to be pumped up for those staying behind. Right is there to serve as both the shoulder to cry on and the encouraging pat on the back to move ahead when workforces are reduced.
It goes without saying that this sad economy has been littered on by the perpetual rain of pink slips. Ailing companies need help with termination interviews, setting up severance packages and outplacement services. Right is there, blazing along with the storm clouds. Earnings nearly doubled to $1.57 a share last year on a 48% surge in revenue to $466.3 million.
That kind of resiliency creates an interesting situation here. While analyzing many companies these days involves trying to figure out if they will bounce back when the economy does, with Right one has to wonder if the gravy days will be over when the economic gloom subsides.
The market seems to think so. The stock is trading at just eight times last year's earnings. This cheap valuation comes despite the company insisting back in February that it is looking to grow diluted earnings by 15% to $1.80 a share this year on roughly $500 million in revenue. Those projections were reiterated by Right this past week. So, yes, if buying in at eight times last year's profits sounds cheap, how about paying just seven times this year's income target?
The stock is essentially where it was when I wrote about the company back in December. Being stuck in neutral didn't make a whole lot of sense then and it makes even less sense now.
The ace up Right's sleeve is that it's not just a provider of pillows and after-dinner mints at fiscal funerals. The company is also a growing provider of organizational consulting services. The same foot in the door that got Right into a company under its down time is still there when good fortune and capital spending arrive.
Through a consulting buffet of talent management, leadership development, and organizational performance services, the company is making sure that those who do stick around become even more efficient and effective.
That's the Right side that few are seeing now. In its March quarter, the company grew its traditional career transition business by 22% while its organizational consulting services shot up by 49%. While the latter makes up just a sixth of the company's revenue base right now, not only will it continue to grow but it's doing awfully well here while the economy is still running just shy of iffy.
Along the way the company has been acquiring consulting interests worldwide. It now has 300 global service locations. Ready to weather the rain and make the Right move? Don't be left behind.
For more stock ideas delivered right to your mailbox -- from your postman, that is -- check out David and Tom Gardner's Motley Fool Stock Advisor .
Rick Aristotle Munarriz can't recall his mother ever being wrong. That said, he does own shares of Right. Rick's stock holdings can be viewed online, as can the Fool's disclosure policy.
A Stock for Mom represents the opinion of one Fool and should in no way be taken as the opinion of either The Motley Fool, Inc. or the company in question, or as representative of anyone or anything other than that specific Fool's thoughts.
