TSC Ratings' Updates: BancorpSouth

MPS had been rated a hold since July 22, 2008.

BioScrip(BIOS Quote) was upgraded from sell to hold. BioScrip, a specialty pharmaceutical healthcare organization, provides medications and management solutions for chronic and other healthcare conditions in the U.S. It operates through two segments: specialty services and PBM services. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and impressive record of earnings per share growth. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself and poor profit margins.

The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 3.3%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenue rose by 18.2%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.

BIOS's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.12 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.11, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.

The gross profit margin for BIOS is currently extremely low, coming in at 10.60%. It has decreased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of 0.50% trails that of the industry average.

BIOS's stock share price has done very poorly compared with where it was a year ago: Despite any rallies, the net result is that it is down by 29.85%, which is also worse that the performance of the S&P 500 Index. Investors have so far failed to pay much attention to the earnings improvements the company has managed to achieve over the last quarter. Despite the heavy decline in its share price, this stock is still more expensive (when compared with its current earnings) than most other companies in its industry.