NEW YORK (

TheStreet

)

-- Alico

(Nasdaq:

ALCO

) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, good cash flow from operations and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

  • ALCO's very impressive revenue growth greatly exceeded the industry average of 25.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues leaped by 57.5%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
  • ALICO INC reported significant earnings per share improvement 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. During the past fiscal year, ALICO INC turned its bottom line around by earning $0.97 versus -$0.09 in the prior year.
  • The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Food Products industry. The net income increased by 2178.5% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from -$0.09 million to $1.93 million.
  • Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 72.11% to -$0.24 million when compared to the same quarter last year. Despite an increase in cash flow of 72.11%, ALICO INC is still growing at a significantly lower rate than the industry average of 17355.99%.
  • Despite currently having a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, it is higher than that of the industry average, inferring that management of debt levels may need to be evaluated further. Regardless of the somewhat mixed results with the debt-to-equity ratio, the company's quick ratio of 0.97 is weak.

.

Alico, Inc. operates as a land management company in central and southwest Florida. The company cultivates citrus trees to produce citrus; purchases and resells citrus fruits; and cultivates raw sugarcane for sale. The company has a P/E ratio of 24.9, above the average food & beverage industry P/E ratio of 22.5 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Alico has a market cap of $158.5 million and is part of the

consumer goods

sector and

food & beverage

industry. Shares are up 22.1% year to date as of the close of trading on Friday.

You can view the full

Alico Ratings Report

or get investment ideas from our

investment research center

.

-- Written by a member of TheStreet RatingsStaff

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