Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. Stock Hold Recommendation Reiterated (GMCR)

Editor's Note: 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.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq:GMCR) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a hold with a ratings score of C . The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust 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 generally disappointing performance in the past year.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• The revenue growth greatly exceeded the industry average of 23.4%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 21.2%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
• GREEN MTN COFFEE ROASTERS has improved earnings per share by 24.3% 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. This trend suggests that the performance of the business is improving. During the past fiscal year, GREEN MTN COFFEE ROASTERS increased its bottom line by earning $1.30 versus $0.57 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.24 versus $1.30).
• Although GMCR's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18 is very low, it is currently higher than that of the industry average. Although the company had a strong debt-to-equity ratio, its quick ratio of 0.90 is somewhat weak and could be cause for future problems.
• 40.10% is the gross profit margin for GREEN MTN COFFEE ROASTERS which we consider to be strong. Regardless of GMCR's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 8.40% trails the industry average.
• GMCR's stock share price has done very poorly compared to where it was a year ago: Despite any rallies, the net result is that it is down by 78.74%, which is also worse that the performance of the S&P 500 Index. Investors have so far failed to pay much attention to the earnings improvements the company has managed to achieve over the last quarter. Turning toward the future, the fact that the stock has come down in price over the past year should not necessarily be interpreted as a negative; it could be one of the factors that may help make the stock attractive down the road. Right now, however, we believe that it is too soon to buy.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. engages in the specialty coffee and coffee maker business. The company has a P/E ratio of 11.1, below the average food & beverage industry P/E ratio of 11.3 and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has a market cap of $3.83 billion and is part of the consumer goods sector and food & beverage industry. Shares are down 46.2% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

You can view the full Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

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