Investopedia: Helen Of Troy Still Looking Fetching

Every experienced investor has a stock or two that they have followed seemingly forever but have never actually owned. Houseware and personal care product manufacturer Helen Of Troy (Nasdaq:HELE) is one of those for me. Apart from some issues with executive compensation, I have liked this consolidator and low-cost operator and have often seen it as an undervalued and unduly ignored player in a stable market. And yet, I always seem to manage to find some excuse not to own it at any given time. 


Perhaps now is the time. With fiscal first quarter results in hand, it looks as though the company's core businesses are doing fine but that there is still substantial opportunity to improve the cost structure of the newly-acquired Kaz business and find still more consolidation opportunities.

A Mixed Bag in Fiscal Q1
It will be interesting to see how Wall Street chooses to process and interpret Helen of Troy's fiscal first quarter results. On one hand, the top line was quite strong. Revenue grew by almost 70% on a reported basis, with the company's largest segment (Personal Care) growing more than 9%. Housewares revenue grew more than 10%, while the Healthcare/Home unit saw revenue growth of about 7% on a pro forma basis. Working back through the numbers, it would seem as though underlying organic revenue growth was better than 9% this quarter and the company did surpass the high end of analyst expectations. 



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