Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 4, 1992 TAG: 9201040106
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ONCE-STRUGGLING COMPANY A FINANCIAL SMASH
Littlefield, Adams & Co., for years a small and unprofitable maker and printer of sports clothing, was one of Wall Street's high flyers last year.The Roanoke-based company's stock jumped 2,175 percent, from 50 cents at the start of 1991 to $11.375 when the stock market closed Tuesday.
Average stock price gains last year, by comparison, ranged from 20 percent to 57 percent, based on market indexes. The surge in price made Littlefield the third leading gainer on the American Stock Exchange in the fourth quarter.
Littlefield stock apparently leaped in anticipation of profitability, said Curtis Younts of San Antonio, Texas, a major investor in the company.
And it drew the attention of the Los Angeles Times, which this week reported that an investment of $1,000 in Littlefield in January 1991 was valued at $22,750 at the end of December.
Littlefield, the owner of Collegiate Pacific, a Roanoke T-shirt screening company, lost money annually since 1981 until it reported three profitable quarters last year. The 1991 results have not been reported, but the company said it earned $1.7 million in last year's first nine months, up from a loss of $430,000 a year earlier.
In the last six months, Younts and other owners of San Antonio Tent and Awning Co. of Texas bought a major share of Littlefield and then bought three other small companies in Roanoke, Richmond and Kensington, Md.
That acquisition course has raised Littlefield's identification among investors. In a complex paper transaction, Littlefield's acquisition of San Antonio Tent is scheduled for completion about February, Younts said.
The December acquisition of Logotel Inc. of Kensington, Md., may be a far-reaching move. Logotel licenses and distributes apparel and other items bearing such comic strip and entertainment imprints as "Garfield," "Far Side," "Mother Goose and Grimm," "Shoe," "L.A. Law" and "M*A*S*H*."
The acquisitions will continue "as long as they're a good fit," Younts said. They have been financed by an exchange of stock.
Littlefield bought a former competitor, Personal Screening Inc. of Roanoke, and Vatex America Inc. of Richmond, the principal manufacturer of Logotel's licensed apparel products.
The company's stock has been trading at only seven times earnings while the standard ratio for leading stocks is 19 times earnings, Younts said.
He said San Antonio Tent is growing at about 50 percent a year as a result of the popularity of camping products.
George Brammer of A.G. Edwards and Sons said Littlefield is not the same company it was before the San Antonio group bought 28 percent from Roanoke investors. The company has about 1,000 shareholders.
He said it is "potentially a very strong company" which has the right to market on every college campus. About 3,700 shares were traded Friday and as many as 20,000 shares have been on the market some days, he said.