Nutraceutical International Corp. Reports Operating Results (10-K)

Nutraceutical International Corp. (NUTR, Financial) filed Annual Report for the period ended 2009-09-30.

Nutraceutical Int'l Corp. manufactures and markets quality branded nutritional supplements sold to health food stores. The company sells its branded products under the Solaray, KAL, NaturalMax, VegLife, Premier One, Solar Green, Action Labs, and Natural Sport brand names. The company also manufactures bulk materials for use in its own products and for sale to other manufacturers and marketers of nutritional supplements under the names Monarch Nutritional Laboratories and Great Basin Botanicals. Nutraceutical International Corp. has a market cap of $126.4 million; its shares were traded at around $11.6 with a P/E ratio of 9.6 and P/S ratio of 0.8. Nutraceutical International Corp. had an annual average earning growth of 7.2% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Nutraceutical International Corp. the business predictability rank of 3.5-star.

Highlight of Business Operations:

The aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant as of March 31, 2009 at a closing sale price of $6.70 as reported by the Nasdaq National Market was approximately $65.7 million. Shares of common stock held by each officer and director and by each person who owns or may be deemed to own 10% or more of the outstanding common stock have been excluded since such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

According to Nutrition Business Journal, the total retail natural products market (the "Natural Products Market") is highly fragmented and totaled approximately $101.8 billion in retail sales in calendar 2008. The Natural Products Market is comprised of the following submarkets (with estimated calendar 2008 sales indicated): (i) personal care, $10.1 billion, (ii) natural and organic foods, $29.7 billion, (iii) functional foods, $36.8 billion, and (iv) vitamins, minerals and supplements, $25.2 billion. Historically, our primary focus has been on vitamins, minerals and supplements (the "VMS Market"), but recently we have increased our effort in other areas within the Natural Products Market.

The total retail VMS Market is highly fragmented with estimated sales of $25.2 billion in calendar 2008, $23.7 billion in calendar 2007 and $22.5 billion in calendar 2006. We believe that the VMS Market reached its present size due to a number of factors, including (i) interest in healthier lifestyles, living longer and living well, (ii) the publication of research findings supporting the positive health effects of certain nutritional supplements and (iii) the aging of the "Baby Boom" generation combined with the tendency of consumers to purchase more nutritional supplements and natural foods as they age. In recent periods, however, various publicly-traded nutritional supplement companies, as well as industry analysts, have announced an ongoing softness in sales of nutritional supplements. We believe this continuing softness may be the result of, among other things, the lack of any recent industry-wide "hit" products, negative press releases regarding certain ingredients and companies in the VMS Market and increased market and pricing competition, as well as competition from food and pharmaceutical companies.

Read the The complete ReportNUTR is in the portfolios of Chuck Royce of ROYCE & ASSOCIATES, Jean-Marie Eveillard of Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder Advisers, LLC.