Polypore International (PPO) - Zacks #1 Rank Top Performers

The top-performing Zacks #1 Rank company on Thursday was easily Polypore International, Inc. (PPO), which advanced past 11%. Even more dramatic, volume today was more than 1 million shares over the daily average at 1.48 million versus around 400,000 normally.

The catalyst of these performances was its second quarter report from Wednesday. Earnings per share and revenue each improved from a year earlier, while the company posted its fifth straight quarter with a positive earnings surprise.

Polypore International is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of highly specialized polymer-based membranes used in separation and filtration processes.

It is one of 7 companies from the elec-miscellaneous components industry on today's Zacks #1 Rank List. The other 6 names are AVX Corporation (AVX), Ceradyne, Inc. (CRDN), DDi Corp. (DDIC), Nidec Corporation (NJ), Park Electrochemical Corp. (PKE) and TDK Corp. (TTDKY).

Second-Quarter Report

On Wednesday, Polypore announced adjusted earnings per share of 33 cents for the second quarter, compared to 12 cents a year earlier. The result was a dime better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate at 23 cents, accounting for a surprise of more than 40%.

That marks a fifth straight quarter with profit ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate. In fact, if we went back 11 quarters, we would see that the company only missed once in the first quarter of 2009.

Sales jumped 27% to $150.1 million from last year's $118.2 million. According to the company, it continues to experience positive trends in all of its businesses. For example, sales for the Energy Storage segment increased 31% to $107.5 million, while sales for Separations Media were up 19% to $42.6 million.

"We are pleased that the positive trends that began in the third quarter of last year continue in 2010," said President/CEO Robert B. Toth. "We remain encouraged by dynamics across our businesses, including robust growth of lead-acid battery separators in Asia, improvements in consumer electronics, sales into EDVs, continued application proliferation in filtration and emerging longer term opportunities in healthcare."

For the third quarter, analysts are currently expecting 21 cents per share, compared to 17 cents last year. That guidance is up 2 cents in 7 days.

Earnings Estimates for Polypore International

There are 8 total estimates for each this year and next, but there's been no movement since the quarter's report. There has been an upward revision for each period over the past 30 days. Nonetheless, the overall trend is still higher, which you can see from its Zacks #1 Rank and from this chart:

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this year is $1.01 per share, which is up 2% from 30 days ago. Looking a little further back, the guidance has moved up by 25% in 3 months and 7.4% in 2 months.

As for 2011, the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.18 per share currently suggests profit growth of nearly 17%. The outlook is up 1.7% in 30 days and about 8.3% in 2 months.

 
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