Hello my precious readers! Hope you all are enjoying the weather. Here in Toronto, I have not been able to feel the spring yet. It is still freezing cold but at least my mind is fully ready to embrace the spring.
I know that writing about Lassonde Industries ($LAS) won’t get me any new readers or I may even lose some of you 🙂 but I have been liking this possibly the most sleepy company in TSX for a while that I had to write something about its earnings.
They are well known for its Oasis juice
As always, Lassonde released its earnings during mid-day today.
They released around 2:30 pm…
I am quite sure that 99% of publicly traded companies typically release its earnings either before markets open or after markets close. But Lassonde does not care as long as what they do is legal. That gives some clue on how little my lovely management care about public markets. Even though they are traded publicly, they act very much like a small private company headquartered in a small farming town in Montreal. Probably no one know whether companies like this ever exist in Canada.
Since the management is mute on public markets, as a small time shareholder that loves the company dearly, I will do the free advertising for them in my blog. I typically charge several hundred $ for sponsored articles and links in this beautifully crafted blog but for Lassonde, I will take nothing and more than happy to add some pictures on top of that. That is a premium treatment.
What you see below on the right is the head office building (ugly blueish green color) and the one on the left seems to be a juice factory. This is what a $1.8 billion company looks like. I think many of my co-workers houses look much nicer and bigger than the head office. Diverse range of cars and their parking job seem peaceful just like the town they are located in.
That being said… Lassonde is a cash making machine. Let me summarize who they are quickly.
- $1.8B in market cap
- $1.5B in revenue
- $95M in net income and $145M in cash flow
- P/E is less than 20 and P/cash flow is less than 12.5. No forward flows info is available but you can guesstimate.
- ROE of around 15%
- Just repaid $72M of debt in 2017 and $83M in 2016. They reduced its debt from $380M in 2014 to $168M in 2017.
- That means, the time is almost ripe for another acquisition that will boost almost all metrics of the company.
- Not a single share issuance for last 10 years while growing its revenue from $400M to $1.5B and its cashflow from $38M to $145M.
- No options are outstanding
- Huge insider ownership (more than 50%)
- Relatively moderate salary compared to all other companies (remember infamous Hasenfratz family from Linamar took around $27M in 2017? MTY’s Stanley Ma is a rare diamond compared to most of publicly traded companies)
- Its share has grown more than 21% on average for last 10 years…
- That means you would have almost 8 times your money if you held this beauty for last 10 years.
I think that’s enough..
What can I say? I just like this sleepy stock.
Here is the youtube video about Lassonde from Jean Gattuso, current COO.
From Lassonde’s sister
and Lassonde’s daughter
Their accountant who worked with them over 44 years.
I liked this video the best 🙂
What a great family and people who have been around with Lassonde for a long time.
Great numbers are important for me when it comes to investing but these little things certainly would not hurt. Definitely making me feel good about owing a piece of this beauty. Don’t know what would happen when Lassonde retires but let me worry about it when the time comes. Until then, I will keep liking them as long as they deliver!
Happy hunting everyone!
Here are my most popular posts.
I’ve been holding LAS for last 3 years. Happy shareholder so far!
🙂