What does everyone think about Barnes Group (B)?

JohnL said: "Pretty cheap stock after the split, has a relatively low market cap ($862.27M) with the ability to grow, great management and solid fundamentals. It also pays $0.10-$0.12 dividends quarterly. The stock is sure cheap enough to grab a few thousand shares. They just acquired Kent which will be integrated into its distribution business. For the second quarter of 2006, their 10Q speaks for itself: "In the second quarter, the Company achieved record sales of $308.9 million, an increase of 10.1% over the 2005 period, driven in large part by organic sales growth, primarily at Barnes Aerospace and Barnes Distribution, and incremental sales from recent acquisitions. This sales growth, along with operational improvements and cost reductions resulted in a year over year increase in operating income of 30.8%." The P/E sits at a low 13.1 which is low compared to its industry. For those that are still with me, the company is split tripartite into Barnes Aerospace, Barnes Distribution and Associated Spring. It manufactures "precision metal components and assemblies [and] distributes industrial supplies." Furthermore, a look at insider trading shows positive accumulation of the stock by management and directors. The slow stochastic shows this as perhaps oversold with the possibility of a continuing bearish trend in the stock, and there is no doubt after looking at a candlestick or standard deviation chart that the stock has had some hard days, but I think that is what I like best about of it: a solid company at a discounted price."

Rickster said: "Interesting. But I dont like to trade on information that anyone can get by checking a few web pages. Not saying the stock is bad though. It sure has good numbers. A few things make me wonder. Institutional ownership is 71%. I would rather get in before the big boys. Volume picked up about a year ago. I like to sell about 18 months after volume picks up. That means there are only about 6 months of my type of run left. That means short term capital gains and reduced time for it to advance. The short ratio is 8.3 days (7.3% of the float). Now, if all those shorts are wrong, the stock could get a nice run if they could be forced to cover. But when I see that many shorts I have to wonder what they might know that I dont. If there is an unfair advantage available, I want it to be mine."

JohnL said: "It took a killing today, pushing it even further down. What compensates for the high institutional ownership is the high insider ownership, IMO."