John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio) is the Founder of Ariel Investment, LLC, which he started in 1983. As of Q1 2015 the portfolio has a value of $8,922 million and is composed of 187 stocks.
On April he increased by 47.61% his stake in Versar Inc (VSR) a project and program management firm that provides the government, municipalities, and the private sector with solutions for infrastructure, facilities management, construction, environmental quality, professional services, defense and homeland security needs.
The company has a market capitalization of 37.67 million and is now trading with a forward P/E ratio of 7.42 that is cheaper than 78% of the other companies in the Global Engineering & Construction industry; the industry has an average forward P/E of 11.52.
Versar Inc has null returns (ROE -1.34%, ROA -0.78%, ROC -3.87%) that compared to the company’s competitors are ranked lower than 81% of them; even so, they are performing much better than recent history of VSR.
John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio) started to buy the company during Q1 of 2010 and then he increased his position almost every quarter, while the price was fluctuating between $2 and $3. Now he holds 1,684,308 shares at an average price of $3.64/share (an average gain of 2%). His stake represent the 17.17% of shares outstanding of the company and just the 0.07% of the total assets he manages.
The other guru holding the company is Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) who holds 316,400 shares (3.23% of shares outstanding).
During Q1 of 2015, revenue increased just slightly from the same quarter of the last year but they had a 18% sequential increase from the fourth quarter. They recorded a gross revenue of $9.6 million, +2% compared to $29.1 million of the past year. Gross margin decreased to 9% (it was 10% the previous year).
Net loss for the quarter was $89,000 ($0.01 per share), a strong drop compared to the net income of $659,000 ($0.07 per share) for the first quarter of 2014.
On November 2014, they announced a $5.1 million contract to work at VersarPPS to supply chemical splash protective suits to the U.K.’s Department for International Development.
The company has a financial strength rated 3/10 with a cash to debt of 0.12 (much low compared to the industry median of 0.72) but for Tony Otten, CEO of the company, this is not a problem:
With working capital of $21 million, our balance sheet remains strong and it’s a significant asset to our company. Additionally, our current cash position and our anticipated cash flows from operations are expected to be sufficient for our ongoing liquidity needs.
