Impressive Numbers At FreightCar America
FreightCar America (RAIL) had blowout earnings for Q4'11 reported this morning. Unfortunately this isn't a stock that I follow, but anybody watching the backlog numbers probably isn't that surprised. The stock has soared over 22% on the news. RAIL reported earnings of $.71 that easily smashed the $.18 estimate. Most astonishing were the rail car deliveries and backlog growth compared to last year and even last quarter. Deliveries Q4'11 - 2,489 units Q3'11 - 1,515 units Q4'10 - 694 units Backlog Q4'11 - 8,303 units Q3'11 - 6,311 units Q4'10 - 2,054 units It appears that most of the growth is related to a eastern coal car replacement cycle. Demand evidently jumped as more eastern coal is being shipped internationally. Getting that coal to ports evidently takes more railcars or just newer railcars. The big problem is that coal demand has slowed making the replacement cycle a big question especially to jump into a stock up 20%. ...