Brady Corporation Stock Downgraded (BRC)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Brady Corporation (NYSE:BRC) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from buy to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, good cash flow from operations and expanding profit margins. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including disappointing return on equity, a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself and deteriorating net income.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.32, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. To add to this, BRC has a quick ratio of 2.26, which demonstrates the ability of the company to cover short-term liquidity needs.
• Net operating cash flow has slightly increased to $57.29 million or 8.43% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -27.28%.
• Regardless of the drop in revenue, the company managed to outperform against the industry average of 10.8%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 1.9%. The declining revenue appears to have seeped down to the company's bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• The change in net income from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the Electrical Equipment industry average, but is less than that of the S&P 500. The net income has decreased by 3.3% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $28.59 million to $27.65 million.
• Current return on equity is lower than its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of weakness within the company. Compared to other companies in the Electrical Equipment industry and the overall market, BRADY CORP's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.

Brady Corporation manufactures and markets identification solutions and specialty products that identify and protect premises, products, and people. Brady has a market cap of $1.34 billion and is part of the services sector and diversified services industry. Shares are down 13.7% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.

You can view the full Brady Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

-- Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

For more information on Brady Corporation click any of the following:

• Brady Corporation Stock Price

• Brady Corporation Analyst Ratings

• Brady Corporation Key Stats & Profile

• Brady Corporation Earnings

• Brady Corporation Ratio Comparison

• Brady Corporation Growth Rates

• Brady Corporation Balance Sheet

• Brady Corporation Cash Flow

• Brady Corporation Income Statement