 Hawai'i stocks soar
Advertiser Staff
Schuler Homes
Ticker symbol: SHLR
Trades on: Nasdaq
Current price: $12.19
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: +95%
52-week high/low: $13/$5.56
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $245.3 million
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): 11.11
This stock has jumped in the last six months after an extended plunge. Between fall 1993 and summer 2000, stock in Schuler Homes, which builds housing developments in Hawai'i and on the mainland, lost 80 percent of its value, falling from about $30 per share, to about $6. Lately the stock has rebounded, hovering between $9 and $12 per share. This coincides with higher quarterly earnings, improved Hawai'i real estate prospects and this April's planned merger with fellow developer Western Pacific.
BancWest
Ticker symbol: BWE
Trades on: New York Stock Exchange
Current price: $26.30
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: +47.4%
52-week high/low: $27.25/$13.875
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $3.28 billion
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): 14.76
Like many bank stocks, BancWest sagged in 1999 and early 2000, at one point dipping briefly below its $16-per-share book value. Since March 2000, however, the stock has risen steadily to its highest level since November 1998, when BancWest was created through the merger of First Hawaiian Bank and San Francisco’s Bank of the West. Lower interest rates, earnings growth, branch acquisitions and a clean credit portfolio are all potential factors in the rally.
Alexander & Baldwin
Ticker symbol: ALEX
Trades on: Nasdaq
Current price: $27.19
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: +39.3%
52-week high/low: $29.56/$17.94
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $1.1 billion
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): 14.66
Alexander & Baldwin's stock rose in the late '80s, stumbled through the 1990s, and recovered its form in 2000, rising recently to new highs. The rally came as subsidiary Matson Navigation Co. cut costs and improved profitability. Meanwhile, property holdings on Hawai'i have done well, countering dampened earnings from the conglomerate’s sugar division.
CB Bancshares
Ticker symbol: CBBI
Trades on: Nasdaq
Current price: $34.19
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: +44.4%
52-week high/low: $34.25/$22.75
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $109.4 million
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): 9.8
After the company posted record earnings in fourth-quarter 2000, prices leaped 35 percent for this thinly traded stock. Earnings have benefited recently from deposit and loan growth, and costs have dropped thanks to the merger last summer of principal subsidiaries City Bank and International Savings & Loan.
Maui Land & Pineapple
Ticker symbol: MLP
Trades on: American Stock Exchange
Current price: $21.85
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: +37.6%
52-week high/low: $26.75/$14
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $157.2 million
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): 364.2
Share prices doubled from $10 to about $20 in 1999 when America Online Chairman Steve Case announced plans to buy a 41.2-percent stake in the agriculture and real estate conglomerate. After falling to about $14 per share in early 2000, prices began to recover as the company's land division reported stronger performance. Since an October peak above $26, however, prices have fallen back. Earnings were lower in 2000 because of losses from the company's pineapple division, which operates the state's last pineapple cannery.
Hawaiian Electric Industries
Ticker symbol: HE
Trades on: New York Stock Exchange
Current price: $36.44
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: +18.0%
52-week high/low: $37.94/$27.75
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $1.2 billion
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): 25.73
As growth stocks plummeted in March and April 2000, utility/banking conglomerate HEI experienced one of the strongest price rallies in company history, leaping from the mid-20s to the mid-30s. Earnings have been strong for subsidiaries Hawaiian Electric Co. and American Savings Bank. Bad news from international operations, including a stalled power project in China and a disastrous investment in a Philippines joint venture, did not keep the stock from reaching new highs.
CPB Inc.
Ticker symbol: CPBI
Trades on: Nasdaq
Current price: $27
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: +14.8%
52-week high/low: $30/$20.75
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $228.5 million
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): 12.96
This thinly traded bank stock has doubled in price since late 1998. Subsidiary Central Pacific Bank has reported earnings growth for seven consecutive quarters as asset quality has improved and the Hawai'i economy has recovered. Also, the bank has bought back more than 20 percent of its stock since 1998. After following the financial stocks down in early 2000, the stock has risen to near-record levels.
Hawaiian Airlines
Ticker symbol: HA
Trades on: American Stock Exchange
Current price: $2.42
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: +1.9%
52-week high/low: $2.88/$1.75
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $86.1 million
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): N/A (company lost money in last reported quarter)
Hawaiian’s stock has hovered between $2 and $3 for several years. The company has lost money in four of the last seven quarters, and has struggled recently with higher fuel costs.
Pacific Century Financial Corp.
Ticker symbol: BOH
Trades on: New York Stock Exchange
Current price: $19.85
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: +1.7%
52-week high/low: $23.19/$11.06
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $1.58 billion
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): 14.08
After falling to nine-year lows this summer as struggling subsidiary Bank of Hawaii revealed credit problems, Pacific Century got a new CEO. The arrival of Michael O'Neill coincided with a nearly 50-percent price surge as interest rates fell, the company divested several subsidiaries and started a strategic review. The recent highs, however, are still well below the stock's late-1990s peak.
ML Macadamia Orchards LP
Ticker symbol: NUT
Trades on: New York Stock Exchange
Current price: $4.39
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: -8.7%
52-week high/low: $5.25/$3.75
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $32.9 million
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): 7.05
This tiny agricultural stock has doubled in price since the mid-1990s, but in 2000 recently leveled off around $4.50 per share. Earnings ebb and flow with macadamia nut prices and yields from the company's Big Island crops. Profits have remained steady since 1999.
Cyanotech
Ticker symbol: CYAN
Trades on: Nasdaq
Current price: 84 cents
Change in share price since April 7, 2000: -51.8%
52-week high/low: $4.88/63 cents
Market capitalization (total value of shares): $13.8 million
P/E ratio (price as a multiple of earnings): N/A (company lost money last quarter)
Like many others in the biotechnology sector, Cyanotech, a Kailua-Kona microalgae producer, has seen its stock plummet in the last 12 months. The company continues to lose money at a nominal level each quarter. Meanwhile, an important institutional investor began to sell its stake, further diluting share prices.
All data current as of Friday’s market close
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