With the after hours sell-off the stock is now trading at just over 10x the trailing 12-month free cash flow. From that multiple, I feel like I can earn an adequate return even if the company doesn’t grow – all it needs to do is maintain its current levels of cash flow.
The problem is, the aforementioned growth has taken the cash flow off the charts. For example, if the growth had been steady I might feel that free cash flow could retract to the $60 million the company posted in 2006, rather than the $108 million it gained in the last half of that year and the first half of 2007. While that would be a sharp cutback, the free cash flow yield would still offer support from which I would hope for growth.
But what if cash flow dropped to 2005 levels? It is surely possible that Nutri-system, a company more than 30 years old, could drop back to the levels seen two years ago, is it not? Well, if it is possible it would be a big problem. In 2005 Nutri-System’s free cash flow was only $12 million. Next to nothing. And I don’t even want to think about 2004.
So, from my point of view Nutri-System doesn’t qualify as a sound investment opportunity right now, despite an apparently cheap valuation. It might, however, be worth a trade.[1]
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