Healthy Quarter Drives Car Parts Company’s Stock

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Motorcar Parts of America Inc.’s stock spiked last week after the company reported strong second quarter earnings and announced a debt refinancing.

Its shares rose 34 percent to close at $17.42 on Nov. 13, making Motorcar Parts the biggest gainer of the week on the LABJ Stock Index. (See page 44.)

Analysts said it was a blowout quarter for the company, and the refinancing, though not surprising, came sooner than the market expected.

The Torrance manufacturer and distributor of automotive aftermarket parts reported a second quarter net income of $2.2 million (15 cents a share) on Nov. 12, compared with a net loss of $8.9 million (-62 cents) in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue for the company rose 15 percent to $66 million, beating analysts’ projected $60 million.

“The fundamentals of the aftermarket are very strong,” said Selwyn H. Joffe, the company’s chief executive. “You have 240 million vehicles on the road and the average age is almost 11.5 years. As these cars get older, the replacement rate of those vehicles goes up pretty significantly.”

He also said as employment picked up, people finally started to spend money on fixing cars, which had been deferred for a while.

Motorcar Parts’ recent launch of a wheel hub line also helped drive the better-than-expected sales. The company said it will continue to look for new product opportunities.

“It historically just sold starters and alternators to customers,” said Jimmy Baker, an analyst at West L.A. firm B. Riley & Co. “It’s now getting into more product lines and the opportunities are very significant.”

He also said the debt refinancing was positive news for the company’s long-term growth.

Motorcar Parts managed to reduce the blended interest rate on its debt to 6.4 percent, down from 10.5 percent. The move was expected to save $4 million in interest expense annually.

“As they launched this new product line and will potentially launch additional new product lines, there could be working capital required,” Baker said. “That could tie up their cash at least temporarily. I think that’s priority No. 1 for the use of that cash.”

The new credit facility was less restrictive than the previous one, he added, enabling the company to repurchase its own stock.

“A mixture of all of those makes us financially strong,” said Joffe.

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