ARB hitting some fun math this morning (gotta look at the bright side as I'm down about 17% on it).

Anyway, last quarterly earnings on Google Finance were 21.09M, annualized out that's 84.36M. Their shares outstanding is 83.46M, which gives an earnings per share of 1 (or close enough to), and makes the current share price match the P/E ratio ( about $20).

For what it's worth I suspect it drops from here, oil shocks probably not helping new vehicle delivery, big 4x4 purchases or retirees wanting to spend up on a 4x4 and do the big lap.

Still held SM and IRL, it's a 7% position after a recent top up.

Two directors have bought about $65k on market each, disclosed on 13/03 and today.

ARB putting up a decent result in a challenging environment. Decent sales growth with a bit of a hit to NPAT.

Challenges include, the Aussie dollar trading at an all time low against the Thai Baht (where a lot of the products are made), Tariffs against imports to the US, difficulty attracting and retaining skilled labor in Aus and around a 15-20% reduction in new car sales across the key models to ARB.

On the positive side, export markets have all seen growth, a lot of the Aussie stores are seeing refits and investments as well as the HQ, investments into an online portal and digital marketing. The big one is the US strategy seems to be paying off, having reached profitability milestones early despite a fairly challenging economic and political environment.

I'm encouraged by the fact they're still seeing sales growth in a challenging environment, and they're taking the time and spending the money to shore up the foundations. If they can do that in a challenging environment I'm keen to see what they can do if/when they can get on a roll with new car sales and a more favourable consumer spending environment in Australia (if there is one thing that aussies love more than seeing equity grow in their property, it's stripping that equity out to buy a caravan and do up the 4x4).

As always time will tell but I feel they're positioning themselves well for the future, just need to wait for it to arrive now.

-Held irl and on SM

I topped up on ARB through the week. Apparently some insiders did too, to the tune of about a million dollars. My addition was somewhat more modest, but always nice to have insider alignment.

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