Cheaper than a burrito, Mexican Restaurants
I enjoy meaningless metrics for some reason. I remember in 2008 hearing a commentator on TV say that Citi's shares cost less than an overdraft fee. In the case of Mexican Restaurants (CASA) you could either buy a combo platter at one of their restaurants, or 8-10 shares of their stock. Mexican food is known for being inexpensive, and like the food Mexican Restaurants is inexpensive as well.
Mexican Restaurants falls into one of my favorite investing categories, a company that is mis-priced on so many different levels it's almost unbelievable that the opportunity exists. Let me lay out exactly how cheap Mexican Restaurants is; the cost to franchise one of Mexican Restaurant brands is between $814,000 and $2,504,000 per store. As an individual you could either invest $2.5m to start a franchised location, or buy all of 52 of Mexican Restaurant's stores for $3.7m.
The company is a restaurant operator in the American Southwest, they own 52 locations, have 13 franchisees and one licensed location. The company has had a rocky few years with a trail of losses extending from 2008 until very recently. As the company accumulated losses over the past few years they cut underperforming stores and rationalized their workforce. They continued to lose money until this year when operations turned around and their cost cutting paid off. As part of the cost cutting measures the company delisted. If anyone is still wondering why they're cheap, they have a history of losses, they're tiny, and they're unlisted.
There's not much about Mexican Restaurant's stock to not like. They are trading at 35% of book value, and at 5x their net income from the first 9 months of this year. After a $2m debt payment this quarter book value will increase to around $4 per share. The company will also be debt free at the end of the year.