Knowledge, ELSE was barely break-even on an operations basis for FY05. Non-operating income was generated by sales of investments:
"The Company’s primary investments are 569,615 shares of August Technology Corporation and 551,759 shares of PPT Vision, Inc. The PPT Vision investment is accounted for under the equity method of accounting. These stocks are subject to fluctuations in price and could have a negative effect on the liquidity of the Company. Liquid securities are periodically sold as deemed appropriate by management.
August Technology Corporation (“August”) was acquired by Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (“Rudolph”) on February 15, 2006. As a result of Rudolph’s acquisition of August, the Company received 347,224 shares of Rudolph common stock and $1,015,891 in cash. The Company has not determined how it intends to utilize the cash proceeds at this time. "
Out of pretax income of 1189k, only 3k came from actual operations....the rest came from cap gains.
I don't think PE is the best multiple to use here, as the company has no real operating earnings and virtually no growth in its existing biz. Its bottom line "growth" is solely due to realized cap gains as it periodically sells off its holdings in two other companies, notably Rudolph Technologies......
So, I can see why it doesn't trade much higher than cash value.
AI
