Your Source for Up-To-Date News and Research on the Collision Repair Industry

click here to subscribe to the FREE INSIGHT Editor's Desk News Alert Email

SUBSCRIBERS-ONLY
Today's News
INSIGHT This Month
INSIGHT Archives
Survey Center
Letter to the Editor

Business Tools
Subscription Information
CSI Reporting
Financial Analysis
IRS Audit Guide

Management/
Technical Info
Market Watch Rates
INSIGHT Inside this month's issue...

Feedback
Letter to the Editor

This article originally appeared in the May 2004 Issue of INSIGHT

Appreciating the Ides of April

This past month was kinder and gentler to our Collision Industry and insurer stocks, and calm for the Stock Market overall. March lived up to the old adage “In like a lion, out like a lamb” this year.

Both our supplier index and our insurer index were up over seven percent YTD, while the Dow barely moved - up just a quarter of one percent since January.

Both Copart and Insurance Auto Auctions are continuing to demonstrate excellent performance on Wall Street. Copart’s per share stock price, at $20.75, is up almost 25 percent since the first of the year, and Insurance Auto Auctions is up almost 20 percent to $15.32 per share in price. Both companies will hopefully continue to see some real return on the hefty investments they have been making in the upgrading and development of their software and computerization of services. I believe we will see several acquisitions by both of these auto auction companies before the end of 2004.

The refinish manufacturers are climbing back a bit from a rough March, although Akzo Nobel, BASF, DuPont, and PPG are still showing lower per share stock prices than at the outset of the year. Valspar’s stock price is up a bit, and Sherwin-Williams is definitely shining.

Sherwin-Williams is the refinish star this month, with the company’s stock price up over 14 percent YTD. Sherwin-Williams is also in the news with the announcement of the company’s acquisition of interest in China’s Shanghai Kinlita Chemical.

I have a feeling that China will be in the business and financial news for several years to come, hopefully opening the gates to a huge market for international development.

I am feeling in a predicting sort of mood, probably a bit mischievious due to the relative calmness of this past month. I am willing to place a wager (a small wager) that Keystone Automotive is gearing up for something.

The company’s stock price has shown virtually no movement since the beginning of the year, up less than two percent since January, but I am confident that the soon-to-retire Keystone leader, Charlie Hogarty, has no intention of simply resting on his laurels and treading water peacefully until his retirement banquet evening.

Our TrendLine respondents this month (See page 18.) reported an eight percent overall increase in repair orders during March across the U.S. This is a better figure than we have seen for a while. If Americans take to the road for vacations this summer, despite climbing fuel costs at the pump, collision repair facilities may be able to predict a good season.

-Charles Baker-

Feedback

Have a comment about this article? Send Email to Charles Baker, INSIGHT's Publisher

SUBSCRIBERS-ONLY Today's News INSIGHT This Month INSIGHT Archives Survey Center Letter to the Editor

Business Tools Subscription Information CSI Reporting Financial Analysis IRS Audit Guide