Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. ( KKD )

[Jameson]

aposto numa ida á LTd, depois daquela boa reacção á LTa...presentemente encontra-se a consolidar nos $7, a minha dúvida é se irá partir já daqui ou irá ainda tocar nova vez na LTa...

[Jameson]

Dueling Fools: Krispy Kreme Bull

When it comes to doughnuts, W.D. Crotty knows the difference between the dough and the nuts. He makes an impassioned plea for investors to shake off the follow-the-herd mentality and sink their teeth into a potentially rewarding multibagger.

By W.D. Crotty
July 28, 2005

Passionate customers drive business at perennial investment all-star Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX). Coffee's cheaper at McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), and Allied Domecq's Dunkin' Donuts unit is America's leader in coffee-by-the-cup sales. But Starbucks has a $19.3 billion enterprise value (Allied, home of the second-largest liquor company in the world and owner of Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin-Robbins, and Togo's, sports an enterprise value of $16.2 billion -- $3.1 billion less than Starbucks).

So, get it right like Starbucks, and there is fantastic money to be made in a fast-serve food stock.

Kreme of the crop
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (NYSE: KKD) makes a great doughnut (and I like that it has the class to spell it doughnut; not donut like the competition). I've certainly consumed my share.

Thursday night, I waddled into the local Krispy Kreme when the "Hot Now" neon sign was blazing red, the signal that the famed original glazed doughnuts were being made fresh. A small crowd was forming for "doughnut theater" -- the on-site, fully viewable doughnut machine making the delectable treats.

Think about this. It was after 7:00 in the evening, and a doughnut shop was getting customers to come in by turning on a sign. While most doughnut shops would have trouble selling their fare past 10 in the morning, Krispy Kreme has a Pavlovian method for driving business in the off-hours.

One knock on the company has been its coffee. At a time when everyone, even McDonald's, is trying to brew a better cup of java, Krispy Kreme got the message and has updated its coffee offering -- espresso, too. Like the dough for the doughnuts, the company now centrally blends, roasts, and grounds its coffee to insure a fresh, consistent quality.

The company hasn't ignored the fast-growing frozen beverage market either. A year ago, it started offering four flavors -- latte, raspberry, double chocolate, and Original Kreme. The later is based on the flavor of its famed glazed donut. Ah, innovation with a unique twist.

Hot doughnuts for everyone!
There are 400 Krispy Kreme stores located in 45 states, Australia, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. For comparison, Starbucks has 9,671 locations. So here is a company with a well known brand name that sells a premium product but hasn't reached anything close to massive scale.

It's easy to get lost in all the negative press about fourth-quarter sales being down 16%. Yes, that is bad news. Same-store sales look bleak. And, yes, the stock has cratered 60.2% over the last 52 weeks. But the company's enterprise value of $564.1 million is $120 million less than trailing annual sales for fiscal 2005 (which ended in February). Quality fast-food brand names selling at a discount to enterprise value are rare.

In April, the company secured $225 million in financing. The money was used to repay $90 million in existing debt and put cold cash on the balance sheet. There are no longer any near-term credit repayment deadlines.

The company is hiring new executives, has slowed its new-store growth to a trickle, and is focusing its efforts on getting the existing stores back on track. While it would be nice to have hard financial data to drive home where to find future value, let's use what we know. Krispy Kreme's market capitalization is just 65% of sales. Fast-growing Starbucks' multiple is 3.4 times and giant McDonald's weighs in at 2.0 times.

When Krispy Kreme recovers, and it will, the tiny company's growth prospects should muster a price-to-sales multiple far above today's, which is based on depressed sales figures. It is a multibagger in the making.


Krispy Kreme is a recommendation of our Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter service. Since its 2002 debut, the average pick has tripled the return of the S&P 500. But the Duel doesn't end here. Check out the Bear argument and the Bull and Bear rebuttals, then cast your vote for the winner.

Fool contributor W.D. Crotty does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned, though he has been known to eat a doughnut or two. Click here to see The Motley Fool's disclosure policy.

[Jameson]

Retail
The Sweet Smell of Success Fees
By TSC Staff
8/1/2005 1:16 PM EDT

URL: http://www.thestreet.com/stocks/retail/10235855.html

Krispy Kreme (KKD:NYSE) signed off on the terms of a "success fee" the company will pay Kroll Zolfo Cooper for the management services the firm is planning to provide the troubled breakfast sweets peddler.

The Winston-Salem, N.C., company will issue Kroll a warrant to buy 1.2 million Krispy Kreme shares at an exercise price of $7.75 a share. The doughnut seller said the number of shares that will be issued and the exercise price are subject to adjustments, according to certain provisions of the agreement.

The warrant will become exercisable on Jan. 29, 2006, or 30 days following the public announcement of the appointment of a new chief executive, whichever is later. Those terms won't apply if the company terminates the pact with cause or Kroll ends the agreement without good reason, in which case the warrant would be forfeited.

Kroll Zolfo Cooper provides services such as turnaround consulting, crisis management, and forensic and litigation assistance. The firm is part of Marsh & McLennan (MMC:NYSE) .

Krispy Kreme said the warrant will expire Jan. 31, 2013. The former Wall Street highflier, which roared out of the Southeast with its signature hot, glazed doughnuts and went public in 2000, becoming a national craze along the way, now faces a number of government investigations of its accounting and practices.

The company said earlier this year it would restate some past numbers, and it replaced former CEO Scott Livengood with interim chief and turnaround specialist Stephen Cooper.

Shares of Krispy Kreme were gaining 33 cents, or 4.6%, to $7.54.

[Jameson]

2 anos

[Jameson]

ALERTA: Não está a reagir á LTa, a confirmar-se a ruptura do triângulo simétrico podemos ter uma queda violenta, o que dará um curto interessante.
O nivel dos 6.90 está a servir como suporte de curto prazo, não podemos pôr de lado uma lateralização do titulo (sem esquecer ainda uma mais que improvável reacção tardia á LTa ) pelo q aguardaria por mais sinais para uma entrada curta.