Patriot Transportation Holdings Inc. Stock Upgraded (PATR)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Patriot Transportation Holdings (Nasdaq:PATR) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to buy. 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, good cash flow from operations, growth in earnings per share and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 15.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 7.4%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
• The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.40, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.50, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.
• Net operating cash flow has increased to $5.37 million or 24.16% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -6.74%.
• PATRIOT TRANSN HOLDING INC has improved earnings per share by 43.8% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. Stable earnings per share over the past year indicate the company has sound management over its earnings and share float. We anticipate these figures will begin to experience more growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, PATRIOT TRANSN HOLDING INC's EPS of $0.75 remained unchanged from the prior years' EPS of $0.75. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($0.88 versus $0.75).
• The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Road & Rail industry and the overall market, PATRIOT TRANSN HOLDING INC's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.

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Patriot Transportation Holding, Inc. and its subsidiaries engage in the transportation and real estate businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Transportation, Mining Royalty Land, and Developed Property Rentals. The company has a P/E ratio of 27, above the average transportation industry P/E ratio of 16.7 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Patriot Transportation has a market cap of $199.8 million and is part of the services sector and transportation industry. Shares are up 3.4% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday.

You can view the full Patriot Transportation Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.
-- Written by a member of TheStreet RatingsStaff

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• Patriot Transportation Holdings Inc. Income Statement