Sometimes, companies go public with big splashy initial stock sales. Sometimes, they quietly emerge on the publicly traded scene.
The newest Jacksonville public company took the latter route. Anthus Life Corp., which offers a line of eight health bars, called “Natural plus Energy,” became public by merging with a publicly traded company called Stakool Inc., according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week.
Anthus is a development stage company that produced total revenue of $4,813 and a net loss of $193,657 in 2010, and revenue of $10,161 and a loss of $136,706 in the first six months of this year, according to the filing.
The filing says Anthus “strives to become one of the leading suppliers of natural and organic products” and to “build a loyal consumer following throughout North America.” The company plans to introduce additional health bars and other natural and organic products.
The filing also notes that the company has enlisted former Olympic gymnast and current health and fitness advocate Shannon Miller as a spokeswoman.
A voice mail message left at the company’s office last week was not returned.
Officially, the publicly traded company still is called Stakool. Until last week’s filing, which listed its address in Jacksonville, Stakool’s SEC filings had a California address.
The filings say Stakool was involved in various businesses but it reported no revenue over the past three years.
The stock trades in the over-the-counter market under the ticker symbol “STKO.” According to Bloomberg News data, the stock price has risen from about 5 cents a month ago to a high of 19.5 cents last week.
Another loss for Dick’s Wings franchisor
Speaking of Jacksonville-based companies that quietly started trading publicly, American Restaurant Concepts Inc. last week reported a third-quarter net loss of $520,365 on revenue of $114,365.
American Restaurant Concepts is the franchisor for Dick’s Wings & Grill restaurants. There are currently 18 Dick’s Wings restaurants, according to its quarterly SEC report.
American Restaurant Concepts’ stock has been listed for the past year in the over-the-counter market under the ticker symbol “ANPZ,” but the stock trades very sporadically. Bloomberg data shows that the last trade in the stock occurred on Oct. 26 at a price of 8 cents a share.
FEC has third-quarter loss
Then there are companies that aren’t public, but seem likely to be public at some point, like Florida East Coast Railway Corp.
FEC was taken private in a 2007 buyout by Fortress Investment Group, but the company began filing financial reports with the SEC in the spring because of the sale of publicly traded senior notes.
FEC’s third-quarter report filed last week shows revenue of $52.2 million and operating income of $10 million.
Because of high interest costs, the company had a net loss of $4.8 million in the quarter.
The SEC filings show that FEC has been recording net losses since the Fortress buyout because of the interest expense.
In many cases where private equity firms buy out publicly traded companies, the equity firm looks to cash in on the deal by taking the company public again a few years down the road. So you can anticipate that Fortress will do that with FEC at some point.
Besides buying FEC in 2007, Fortress also bought RailAmerica Inc. and moved the short-line railroad company’s headquarters to Jacksonville. It then took RailAmerica public again in 2009 with an initial public offering.
Fortress’ $3.5 billion deal to buy Florida East Coast Industries Inc. not only included its 351-mile railroad between Jacksonville and Miami but also commercial real estate company Flagler Development.
Fortress has separated the railroad and real estate company, with Florida East Coast Railway headquartered in Jacksonville and Flagler headquartered in Coral Cables.
Flagler does not file SEC reports.
Another strong quarter for Body Central
If the economy is faltering, someone forgot to tell Body Central Corp. shoppers. The Jacksonville-based retailer of young women’s fashions reported another quarter of strong sales last week.
Total third-quarter revenue rose 17.9 percent to $67.1 million and comparable-store sales rose 8.2 percent. Adjusted earnings of 19 cents a share were 3 cents higher than the average forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
“Our comparable-store sales performance demonstrates the strength of our existing stores while our new stores are also performing ahead of expectations,” CEO Allen Weinstein said in a news release.
Body Central opened five new stores during the quarter and now has a total of 232 in 24 states.
Analysts expect continued good things from Body Central, with five of six analysts covering the company rating it a “strong buy” and the other rating it simply as a “buy,” according to Thomson.
Regency Centers still facing economic headwinds
While everything looks good for Body Central, analysts are a little more uncertain about a Jacksonville-based company that leases shopping center space to companies like Body Central.
Regency Centers Corp. reported recurring third-quarter funds from operations of 61 cents a share, 2 cents higher than the average Thomson Forecast.
Funds from operations, which are basically earnings excluding depreciation and amortization expense, are considered the key performance indicator for real estate investment trusts like Regency.
With the economy still shaky, 12 of 19 analysts following the company rate Regency as a “hold,” according to Thomson.
“Management is doing what is necessary in a no-rent-growth environment to grow net operating income, which is to focus on leasing as leasing volumes improved for the second consecutive quarter,” Robert W. Baird analyst Christopher Lucas said in a research note about the third-quarter results.
Lucas maintained a “neutral” rating on the stock “as we remain concerned about the weak recovery and continued headwinds affecting consumers.”
Analyst downgrades Interline
Interline Brands Inc.’s stock dropped last Monday after William Blair analyst Ryan Merkel downgraded the company from “outperform” to “market perform.”
Jacksonville-based Interline, which markets and distributes maintenance, repair and operations products, had reported third-quarter earnings the previous Friday of 37 cents a share, 3 cents higher than last year and 2 cents higher than the average Thomson forecast. But Merkel is not optimistic about Interline’s growth prospects.
“We believe Interline Brands will continue to disappoint investors with lackluster organic sales growth and limited operating leverage, particularly in a slow-growth economy,” Merkel said in his research note. He said Interline’s growth is lagging behind its competitors.
Merkel believes Interline is too focused on sales to the “slow- growth janitorial end market,” which accounts for 77 percent of its sales.
Interline’s stock fell 93 cents to $14.03 Monday. The 6.2 percent drop was the seventh biggest that day among New York Stock Exchange-listed companies, the Associated Press reported.