TSC Ratings' Updates: Pactiv

NU, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared with the industry average of 6.3%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenue has slightly dropped by 4.8%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, which shows increasing earnings per share.

Compared with where it was trading a year ago, NU's share price has not changed very much, because of the relatively weak year-over-year performance of the overall market, the company's stagnant earnings and other mixed results. Looking ahead, although the push and pull of the overall market trend could certainly make a critical difference, we do not see any strong reason stemming from the company's fundamentals that would cause a continuation of last year's decline. In fact, the stock is now selling for less than others in its industry in relation to its current earnings.

The gross profit margin for NU is rather low; currently it is at 15.60%. Regardless of NU's low profit margin, the company has managed to increase from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 4.50% trails the industry average.

NU had been rated a hold since June 9, 2008.

LDK Solar(LDK Quote) has been upgraded from sell to hold. LDK Solar, through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of multicrystalline solar wafers to the manufacturers of solar cells and solar modules in the People's Republic of China and internationally.

The upgrade is driven by many positives in the company, such as its notable return on equity, robust revenue growth and solid stock price performance. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including generally poor debt management and poor profit margins.