American Greetings Corporation Stock Downgraded (AM)

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) -- American Greetings Corporation (NYSE:AM) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from buy to hold. 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 and expanding profit margins. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, disappointing return on equity and weak operating cash flow.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• The revenue growth greatly exceeded the industry average of 27.0%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 6.4%. 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.
• The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.43, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Even though the company has a strong debt-to-equity ratio, the quick ratio of 0.46 is very weak and demonstrates a lack of ability to pay short-term obligations.
• 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 Household Durables industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, AMERICAN GREETINGS underperformed against that of the industry average and is significantly less than that of the S&P 500.
• Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to -$1.02 million or 104.19% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing to the industry average, the firm's growth rate is much lower.

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American Greetings Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of greeting cards and other social expression products in the United States and internationally. The company has a P/E ratio of 44.4, above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. American Greetings has a market cap of $485.7 million and is part of the services sector and specialty retail industry. Shares are up 32.4% year to date as of the close of trading on Friday.

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

-- Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff

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