The recently declared Q4'12 results of MTEX showed a decrease in sales of around 11.7% compared with Q4'11 ($42.3 million vs $47.9 million). Importantly, sales for US and Canada declined more (down by 14.4% from $23.6 million to $20.2 million) as compared with the decline in international sales (down by 9.1% from $24.3 million to $22.1 million). However, the company turned positive on the net income front, with a minor profit of $0.3 million in Q4'12 compared with a loss of $7 million in Q4'11. The CEO pointed out that the company had turned positive in the second half of the year. For the full year, the net sales in 2012 declined by 13.6% as compared with 2011 (from $200.7 million to $173.4 million). The net loss for the full year declined substantially. For 2012, the net loss was $1.4 million compared with a net loss of $20.7 million in 2011. The number of new independent associates and members for 2012 increased by 20,000 to 97,000. The CEO expressed his satisfaction about the success of its global launch NutriVerus in 2012. Meanwhile, the stock which has been on a long term downtrend, has shown some signs of stabilization since January 2012. Even more recently, last few trading sessions have seen much higher volumes, and the stock has gained a few percentage points indicating some sort of upward bias. The market for the nutritional supplements is growing, but the sales of the company are not. Comparing with newer players like MusclePharm (MSLP) which have shown good growth (from sales of $1 million in 2009 to $78 million in 2012), the company seems to be lacking behind. Even products like BluScience, sold by Chromadex (CDXC) to NutriSci recently, have been success stories. MTEX, therefore, has to continue its efforts to develop and acquire new products all the time. Success of NutriVerus is obviously encouraging.
