What happened
Owens & Minor (OMI 1.44%) investors had a fantastic day Tuesday. After the maker of personal protective equipment (PPE -- such as surgical gloves, gowns, and -- most especially these days -- masks) preannounced preliminary financial results for the fiscal second quarter and upped its guidance for the full year, Owens & Minor stock raced ahead to close the day up 81%.
This afternoon, Owens & Minor is giving back some of those gains -- just a bit -- with its stock down 11.4% as of 3:20 p.m. EDT.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
That's kind of a shame, given that today's news for Owens & Minor is actually pretty good. Bank of America just upgraded the shares to "buy" with a $12 price target, and R.W. Baird raised the stock to "outperform" with a $14 price target. Baird was impressed by the "pop" in PPE demand, notes TheFly.com, and BofA says Owens & Minor should enjoy a "sustained" benefit to its business from PPE sales as the coronavirus crisis drags out.
Nevertheless, when you consider how very far the stock moved yesterday, and how fast, the potential for a bit of profit-taking and giving back of gains today was hardly unanticipated -- and giving back 11% after an 81% gain still leaves O&M shareholders with a tidy profit on their hands.
Now what
Now the question is whether Owens & Minor stock can hang onto the remainder of its gains.
According to its latest guidance, O&M is now on track to earn anywhere from $1 to $1.20 per share in "adjusted" net income this year -- roughly twice what it was looking for three months ago. At a share price of just under $13 today, that makes for a price-to-earnings valuation of no more than 13 for the stock, and potentially as cheap as a P/E of 10.8 if the company maxes out its earnings projection.
Owens & Minor stock may be down a bit today, but I expect it will be heading back up in relatively short order.
