Material Sciences Corporation Stock Upgraded (MASC)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Material Sciences Corporation (Nasdaq:MASC) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, revenue growth and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Powered by its strong earnings growth of 161.53% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 33.90% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, MASC should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.
• MATERIAL SCIENCES CORP reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to 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. During the past fiscal year, MATERIAL SCIENCES CORP turned its bottom line around by earning $0.92 versus -$0.89 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($0.94 versus $0.92).
• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Chemicals industry. The net income increased by 118.0% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $1.71 million to $3.73 million.
• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 15.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 12.9%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
• MASC has no debt to speak of therefore resulting in a debt-to-equity ratio of zero, which we consider to be a relatively favorable sign. To add to this, MASC has a quick ratio of 2.10, which demonstrates the ability of the company to cover short-term liquidity needs.

Material Sciences Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of material-based solutions for acoustical and coated applications in the United States and internationally. The company has a P/E ratio of 9.3, above the average industrial industry P/E ratio of 9.1 and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Material Sciences has a market cap of $92.2 million and is part of the industrial goods sector and industrial industry. Shares are up 5.2% year to date as of the close of trading on Friday.

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