Stock price when the opinion was issued
ASO is cheap at 7.7x forward earnings, however, results have been lagging year-to-date down 22% driven by a weak first quarter. ASO is also flat over the prior twelve months. The company has displayed a declining sales trend over the last few years. There are some marketing initiatives that the company is engaged in that could help drive sales in the latter half of the year, but the first quarter was quite weak. Debt has come down nicely over the last few years and while not low, it appears to be more managable now. We are not overly intrigued by ASO, but it is cheap and does pay a small dividend which gives it some appeal. In an upward sales cycle it could do better but the recent weakness shows otherwise.
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Our PAST TOP PICK with ASO is progressing well. We now recommend trailing up the stop (from $56) to $59 at this time.