We've Got a Winner

It's IPG.

Income 

Only three of the six stocks have a dividend: NLSN, JCDXF and IPG, and they all look quite good.  Over the past three years, each company has grown their dividend.

Let's look at the measures, the ranks and the final ranking in this category.  The measures are dividend yield, 3 year dividend per share CAGR and 1 year dividend per share growth.

	Dividend Yield	D/S 3 year CAGR	1 year D/S growth	Sum	Final Rank
JCDXF	2% 4	3% 4	8% 5	13	4
NLSN	6% 6	5% 5	5% 4	15	5
IPG	4% 5	12% 6	17% 6	17	6

IPG has some very nice dividend results.

Value

The value metrics are:

• price to book
• price to sales
• price to earnings (if the company has negative earnings they get a rank of zero)
• enterprise value to EBITDA.

	P/B	P/S	P/E	EV/EBITDA	Sum	Final Rank
TTD	.21 1	11.1 1	103 2	43 1	5	1
RAMP	.03 5	8.1 2	173 1	16 2	10	2
NLSN	.03 4	1.3 4	negative 0	9 5	13	3
JCDXF	.02 6	1.6 3	23 3	13 3	15	5
IPG	.04 3	.8 5	13 4	9 4	16	6
GRPN	.06 2	.7 6	negative 0	7 6	14	4

All of the companies in the group have what would generally be considered good P/B ratios except for TTD.  The same can be said for P/S but you have to exclude RAMP as well as TTD.  IPG PE ratio is good, JCDXF is acceptable and TTD and RAMP is very expensive.  From an EV/EBITDA perspective, GRPN, IPG and NLSN are attractive.  JCDXF is about average, RAMP is becoming more expensive and TTD is very expensive.

Taking it all together, IPG offers the best value.

Profitability

We'll look at six measures for the profitability factor:

• gross profit to assets
• net income margin
• 5 year average pre-tax return on assets
• 3 year average return on equity
• operating income margin
• free cash flow yield.

	GP/A	NM	5 YR Avg Pre-Tax ROA	3 Yr Ave ROE	OM	FCF	Sum	Rank
TTD	.32 4	.18 6	.08 6	.07 4	.22 6	.01 2	28	6
RAMP	.37 5	.03 3	.00 2	-.03 2	.04 2	.02 4	18	3
NLSN	.20 3	-.11 1	.03 3	.01 3	.17 5	.06 5	20	4
JCDXF	.15 2	.07 5	.04 4	.09 5	.08 3	-.01 1	20	4
IPG	.08 1	.07 4	.06 5	.28 6	.10 4	.01 3	23	5
GRPN	.76 6	.00 2	-.03 1	-.21 1	.02 1	.06 6	17	2

TTD had the best profitability results followed by IPG.

What I think

My instinct is to be more defensive given the declining momentum.  I'd like a healthy company with a good dividend and IPG fits the profile.  It's dividend is good.  It's profitability factors are appealing and its good value.  On the downside, its momentum is poor and its quality isn't standout.  However, I could live with those factors.

If You Just Want to Know The Highest Score

Here are the results in tabular form.

	Price Momentum	Quality	Growth	Income	Value	Profitability	Sum	Final Rank
TTD	6	4	6	0	1	6	23	5
RAMP	5	6	5	0	2	3	21	4
NLSN	1	1	1	5	3	4	15	1
JCDXF	2	3	2	4	5	4	20	3
IPG	3	2	4	6	6	5	26	6
GRPN	4	5	3	0	4	2	18	2

Look at that, IPG has the highest score.  I like it.  I'm going to watch how it does, maybe take a small position.