China Gerui Advanced Materials Group Ltd. Stock Upgraded (CHOP)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- China Gerui Advanced Materials Group (Nasdaq:CHOP) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from sell to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, attractive valuation levels and good cash flow from operations. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including poor profit margins, a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in the company's earnings per share.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• CHOP's revenue growth trails the industry average of 61.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 34.4%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.
• CHOP's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69 is somewhat low overall, but it is high when compared to the industry average, implying that the management of the debt levels should be evaluated further. Regardless of the somewhat mixed results with the debt-to-equity ratio, the company's quick ratio of 1.37 is sturdy.
• Looking at the price performance of CHOP's shares over the past 12 months, there is not much good news to report: the stock is down 31.98%, and it has underformed the S&P 500 Index. In addition, the company's earnings per share are lower today than 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 due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.
• The gross profit margin for CHINA GERUI ADV MATERIALS GP is currently lower than what is desirable, coming in at 28.70%. It has decreased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of 16.30% significantly trails the industry average.

China Gerui Advanced Materials Group Limited engages in the manufacture and sale of cold-rolled narrow strip steel products in the People's Republic of China. The company converts steel manufactured by third parties into thin steel sheets and strips. The company has a P/E ratio of 3.8, below the average metals & mining industry P/E ratio of 4.8 and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. China Gerui Advanced Materials Group has a market cap of $231.2 million and is part of the basic materials sector and metals & mining industry. Shares are up 20% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

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