Value Microcaps Motherboard

[ghmm]

SMID:

I am quite happy with the results for the year. I agree with this market probably don't get much movement. I think SMID has been getting a bad rap for several reasons:
1-Seen as a construction play
2-Poor management/execution
3-Past inconsistent results

As a shareholder I obviously do not agree with these reasons (at least not completely).

1) It is worth noting that the the company did quite well for the year with Slenderwall (used in construction) down significantly from 2006. Soundwall (highway wall barriers) were up rather significantly this shows some of the benefits of their wide diversification.
2) If we judge them on just 2007 and consider they are a microcap I think they executed adequately. And much better then prior years. I think there is plenty of opportunity to improve (better bidding/estimating, margin improvement, a few other areas too). They did manage to avoid a big blotch as seemed to have happened once or twice each year for several years so hopefully that is a good sign.
3) This year they were very consistent. I am hopeful that we can take this as a good sign to come.

Going forward I think things look MUCH better:
1) The backlog of 15.7 is actually 17.1 if you count the 1.4 mil of letter of intent. Plus the regular 7 mil or so in repeat business means we are up to 25 mil (if all the backlog gets done in '08) and I'm sure there will be more orders though I'ld suspect some of the backlog may carry into '09
2) January '09 there will be an inauguration and we have had the barrier rental for this for 20-30 years and it has huge margins! (I keep trying to press on management to try to get more national barrier rental work).
3) The licensing and royalty revenue had a nice increase from '06 growth here goes almost completely to the bottom line if they can continue to grow this it offers a lot of EPS upside.
4) They took a hit for high fuel. I know everyone thinks prices are going to the moon but hopefully SMID can adjust there bidding accordingly and if they stabilize or go down I think it'd really help us.