One stock off to the races this year is truck and bus maker Navistar International (NYSE: NAV). Its shares were up 44% after the first three days of trading this year, including trading higher on days the market was lower. And the stock is up 62% since the day before Christmas.
What's behind the move?
Monday morning the company said it expected earnings for fiscal 2009 to range between $5.10 and $5.60 per share, which is significantly below the $6.08 the Street was expecting (though the company's forecast includes up to $3 per share in pension costs).
Perhaps someone figured out that with the stock in the low $20s and earnings slated to be above $5 per share, the P/E ratio was pretty low and the stock at that low level was too enticing to pass up.
More likely, though, the move can be attributed to comments from CEO Daniel Ustian, who said that he believed that 2010, rather than being a trough year, will be a lot higher than 2009. The company said it sees a (very) slight gain in sales volume in the United States and Canada this year of its school buses and heavy-duty trucks to 244,000 to 256,000 from 244,100 in fiscal 2008.
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