Back on April 28 Cramer recommended Apogee Enterprises as an addendum to his Green Week stock picks. Since then the share price has dropped 16%.
Apogee’s first-quarter numbers miss on Wednesday definitely didn’t help. Analysts expected earnings per share of 43 cents and revenue of $240.4 million, but Apogee ended up with an EPS of 36 cents and revenue of $238.5 million.
Chairman and CEO Russell Huffer, not surprisingly, was undeterred during an interview with Cramer Thursday, saying Apogee is still in a “great position to continue to deliver value to our shareholders.” Business backlog, bidding activity for projects and demand for the company’s green products “continue to increase,” he said.
Apogee handles heating ventilation and air-conditioning instillation and engineering services for commercial buildings. These buildings use almost half of all the electricity generated in the U.S., Huffer said, and Apogee’s products help to cut down on the amount energy needed to regulate climate control.
Huffer blamed the earnings miss on some “move ups” in his business from the first quarter to the previous fourth quarter, and other business “move outs” to later on in 2008. Plus, there were two major startups during the first quarter that bit into Apogee’s profit take-home, he said. Huffer pointed to the company’s reconfirmation of its annual guidance as reason for investors to remain confident.
“We are, clearly, a long-term investment,” Huffer said.
Maybe, but Cramer wants to see another quarter’s worth of earnings before he tells investors to buy APOG again. Huffer was to prove he turned the company around.
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