Bear Of The Day: Caesarstone (CSTE)

Caesarstone (CSTE – Free Report) is a $750 million maker of engineered quartz surfaces such as countertops, vanities, wall cladding, floors and other interior surfaces.

The Israel-based company was identified as a Zacks #5 Rank Strong Sell in June of last year when shares were trading $38. It has fallen 45% since then.

And the downward trend of earnings has persisted with recent analyst estimate revisions taking the full-year 2018 EPS projection from $1.66 to $1.53, representing only 5% profit growth.

CTSE’s decline really picked up momentum after a Q3 earnings miss of 36%, dropping from $28 to $23 in early November.

With little improvement for Q4, which notched a 33% earnings miss, the current March quarter is projected to realize a year-over-year profit drop of 47%.

Here’s a look at the earnings and price decline via the Zacks Proprietary Price & Consensus chart…

And here were some highlights from the company’s year-end report delivered on February 7:

Fourth-quarter loss of $6 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier, on revenue of $148.1 million in the period.

The loss of 19 cents per share, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 22 cents.

For 2017, the company reported profit of $26.2 million, or 73 cents per share. Revenue was reported as $588.1 million.

Caesarstone expects full-year revenue in the range of $612 million to $632 million, representing 5.8% growth at the midpoint.

With CSTE shares trading at 5-year lows and under 14X EPS estimates, it may be tempting to do some bottom-fishing here. But until the earnings estimates stop going down and start going back up, it may be better to fish another quarry.