TSC Ratings' Updates: ArvinMeritor

Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: It has tumbled by 37.98%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 46.87% compared with the year-earlier quarter.

Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But because of other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.

WF, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared with the industry average of 11.0%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenue has slightly dropped by 5.7%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.

WF has been rated a hold since Feb. 14, 2008.

Tiffany(TIF Quote) has been downgraded from a buy to hold. Tiffany, through its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture and retail of fine jewelry. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, impressive record of earnings-per-share growth and compelling growth in net income. However, as a counter to these strengths, we find that the stock has had a decline in price during the past year.

The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 10.0%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenue rose by 10.5%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.

TIF has improved earnings per share by 31.3% in the most recent quarter compared with the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. This trend suggests that the performance of the business is improving. During the past fiscal year, TIF increased its bottom line by earning $2.45 vs. $1.92 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.83 vs. $2.45).