CDI is a High-Yield, High-Tech Firm in a High-Growth Industry

There are many fine publicly-traded companies for investors of all types in the $100 billion staffing industry. Due to the impact of The Great Recession and the costs of the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare, businesses are using the services more and more of staffing firms such as Paychex PAYX, TrueBlue TBI, ManpowerGroup MAN and Labor SMART LTNC. For those looking to invest in a staffing company with a high tech focus and a high dividend, there is CDI Corp. CDI. In the words of one recent article recommending CDI, it is a "..diversified company with a 60-year history of excellence that has recently completed a successful restructuring." Among its most promising areas, CDO provides staffing services to clients around the world. These are in many high tech areas such as aerospace and energy. The professional staffing unit brought in $346 million last year, which was more than twice as much in revenues as any other division. There are many reasons to be bullish about the future of CDI. From a macro perspective, the staffing industry is performing very well. Paychex, TrueBlue and ManpowerGroup are all up strongly for 2013. Labor SMART just posted record revenues. Companies are very hesitant to hire full-time workers as a result of the weak economy recovery and ObamaCare, forcing companies with more than 50 employees to provide expensive insurance coverage to those who work more than 30 hours a week. From that, there has been a tremendous increase in the demand for the products and services of staffing industry companies. Just looking at CDI from a micro view, earnings-per-share are up by 26 percent this quarter. But the company is still attractively valued: the price-to-sales ratio is just 0.28. That means that every dollar of sales is selling at more than a 70 percent discount in the stock price for CDI. It has no debt, which makes the company even more appealing. Attractive also is the high dividend yield of CDI. At present, the average dividend for a member of the S & P's 500 Index is around 1.9 percent. The dividend yield for CDI is 3.38 percent. By contrast, Paychex only pays a dividend of 3.21 percent. The dividend yield for ManpowerGroup is only 1.16 percent. CDI is up more than 15 percent for the last six months of market action. Its dividend has made owning the stock even more rewarding for shareholders. For long-term investors looking for a company in a promising sector that provides a solid stream of income, CDI should provide a strong total return.