Drop in market affects controls industry

The downturn in the U.S. markets that started in 4Q00 is reflected in various indexes. All the indexes have been somewhat stable, except for NASDAQ, which demonstrated the biggest hits among technical and dot-coms stocks for most of the past year. The indexes are all down significantly for 1Q01, but the good news is that the Control Engineering Stock Index declined only 5.

By George J. Blickley, contributing editor June 1, 2001

The downturn in the U.S. markets that started in 4Q00 is reflected in various indexes. All the indexes have been somewhat stable, except for NASDAQ, which demonstrated the biggest hits among technical and dot-coms stocks for most of the past year. The indexes are all down significantly for 1Q01, but the good news is that the Control Engineering Stock Index declined only 5.6%. This was less than other indexes, such as Dow Jones, which dropped 8%, and NASDAQ, which plummeted 25%. Remarkably, the S&P Index held exactly even.

Value down, earnings up

When all the financials are completed for 1Q01, the market value picture will change even more. In a single week in March 2001, for example, the overall stock market lost more than $770 billion of its value. The market value for the controls industries indexed here decreased $37 million from the previous quarter to 1Q01. This loss can be seen in the CE Market Value Index, where a big drop occurred after two quarters of relatively strong improvement.

Paradoxically, the earnings index showed a comfortable increase in 1Q01, following two quarters of disappointing decreases. This provides hope that there will be enough momentum on the earnings side to help assist the overall market for the rest of this year.

Control Engineering Stock Index

Stock prices ($) at close 12/29/00
($) close 3/30/01
% chg in.1Q00
52-wk. high
Annual div. yield
Price/earn. ratio
12-mo. EPS ($)

Ametek Inc. 25.94
27.60
6.4
28.74
0.72
13
2.11

Badger Meter Inc. 23.00
28.50
23.9
37.38
3.51
14
2.00

Danaher Corp. 68.38
54.56
-20.2
69.81
0.18
24
2.23

Eaton Corp. 64.75
68.50
5.8
86.56
2.63
11
6.24

Emerson Electric Co. 78.81
62.00
-21.3
79.75
2.42
18
3.38

Flowserve 21.38
2.44
5.0
24.36
0
55
0.41

Honeywell Inc. 47.31
40.80
-13.8
59.13
1.96
20
2.05

K-Tron International 18.38
15.12
-17.7
18.75
0
7
2.25

National Instruments 48.56
32.63
-32.8
59.5
0
32
1.03

Rockwell International 47.63
36.35
-23.7
49.45
2.75
11
3.27

Transmation Inc.1.00
1.63
63.0
3.75
0
NC
-0.03

Tyco International Ltd. 55.50
43.23
-22.1
63.22
0.23
16
2.78

EPS = earnings per shareYield = % based on closing priceDiv. = dividendNC = not calculable due to negative numbersSource: Control Engineering with data from Cnet Investor(Boulder, Colo., www.investor.cnet.com, 303/938-1877)