Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Green Mountain's net income fell 78%, to $2.2 million, or $0.02 per share; that figure includes costs related to its Van Houtte transaction, as well as legal and accounting-related expenses related to its recent SEC inquiry. Excluding those costs, Green Mountain's net income came in at $26.1 million.
If investors are feeling more bullish on Green Mountain, it probably owes to the company's 67% revenue increase, to $575 million, and the way it surpassed Wall Street estimates. Green Mountain's Keurig single-cup brewer and its K-Cups helped the company generate robust holiday sales.
Nonetheless, I remain leery of Green Mountain as an investment right now. It has traditionally traded at high valuations, and that's still the case. It sports a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 23, outpacing multiples paid for rivals like Starbucks
Green Mountain's historically acquisitive nature makes its financial statements very complicated reading. Furthermore, the Van Houtte acquisition drove its debt load up to $1.09 billion, from $354.5 million in the previous quarter.
Though its super-convenient Keurig single-cup brewers are a big hit for at-home java jolts, Green Mountain still faces plenty of competition from Starbucks, Peet's
Furthermore, commodity price inflation will be a major difficulty for many coffee purveyors going forward; Starbucks recently said that it will start passing some of its rising coffee costs on to customers. We'll have to see just how much coffee-related sticker shock caffeine fiends will bear.
There's a lot to like about Green Mountain: its sales growth, its Keurig single-cup brewers, and its environmentally positive mission. But despite today's optimism over its earnings beat and optimistic outlook, its stock remains expensive and risky.
