It will be interesting to see how it goes now. Once the family no longer has the upper hand in running something they made famous it goes downhill. No longer are some major decisions made by the gut and / or seat of the pants...now they will be made by stockholders and bean counters. It may work and then again.....time will tell.

I think it just proves that age old saying that " All good things must come to a end ".....SADLY I doubt that any beancounter operation will be able to keep up with the Cabela's. I was sorry to see they sold out, But then for that kind of $$$ I would have as well.

I've been wondering for a good while if they would follow the path of Herter's. Lot of similarities up to now.

"Once the family no longer has the upper hand in running something they made famous it goes downhill."

Harry,
What you just described can hardly be called the norm. Most growing and successful public companies in the world were once privately held. To say the transition to being public is always harrowing just has no basis. In fact, many private held companies spend loosely the fortunes of the company without making every effort to grow and increase earnings in the most efficient manner. Once the company becomes public and the performance is scrutinized by new shareholders that want to see a nice return on their investment, the efficiency the new investors demand can actually increase the growth and/or profitability of the business.
And all of this leaves out the biggest benefit a company receives by going public, which is of course, the substantial influx of new capital that can fund future growth in a fashion the privately held company could never enjoy.
True, the wily old company founders may not be in complete control anymore, but if a business has a solid and proven corporate culture, the transition to new capitalization can potentially be very lucrative to the stockholders, be they old or new.

I saw on their website that they plan on opening 2 new stores is Texas next year. This fall their new West Virginia store opens.

I bought some Cabelas stock two days ago. I think it went on the NYSE on June 25. Symbol is CAB for those interested.

It went at about $25 if I remember correctly, don't know how it has done since.

I was just at Cabela's Kansas City store, and it was, to say the least, a very impressive operation. There are small, privately owned gunstores that offer a better selection of firearms and reloading components, but in terms of being GOOD and BIG, Cabela's is the outfit to beat, and they certainly appear to be gaining momentum. In terms of profitability, the fact that Cabela's is a big mail order outfit AND a big over-the-counter retail outfit gives them a huge edge in a number of areas.

I wonder what sort of underlying debt Cabela's carries?

AD

I wish them well. Time will tell.
When I was a young man I could hardly wait to get the Herter's catalog. It was as good a National Geo. with naked native women!
Geo. Herter would take a whole page to tout a #8 Eagle fish hook and you felt if you were not fishing with that hook well.....you just were not fishing!
I would drool over the colored photos of the stock blanks and wish I had $50 for a fancy walnut blank.
I wish the old Herter's was still alive and well today. Somewhere in all my mess I still have one of the old catalogs.

Harry
What you describe is certainly not what I have experienced. Going public is not synonymous with losing control since you don't have to sell all your stock. 20% will control most publicly traded companies due to wide distribution of shareholders. Preferential voting right can reduce that percentage even more. Many private companies go public because they know that they have outgrown their previous way of doing things.

Herter's was a favorite of mine, too. Great stuff. Herter's products are still available, you just now have to get them through another distributor. Online I found:

Thank you for visiting the Herter's online store. Recently, we made the decision to have another company handle the distribution of Herter's products. Naturally, we wanted to ensure that our customers would still be treated to the best service possible. With that in mind, we are pleased to tell you that the exclusive distributor of Herter's products is one of the most trusted names in the outdoor industry - Cabela's .

Allen,



From Yahoo:





Revenue (ttm): 1.44B

Revenue Per Share (ttm): 25.251

Total Cash (mrq): 78.16M

Total Cash Per Share (mrq): 1.21

Total Debt (mrq)�: 249.73M

Total Debt/Equity (mrq): 0.65

Current Ratio (mrq): 1.822

Book Value Per Share (mrq): 6.742





Not sure how much of the story this tells. Didn't find assets (didn't look hard).



-Steve



P.S. fla3006 - Sorry I didn't see your post until after I posted this.

I believe I read that the Cabela's are keeping a large portion of the stock. I think they cited their #1 reason for going public as the ability to rapidly raise the capital to open several new complexes more cost effectively.

Some of the numbers are obvious, but for those of us who are ignorant of such things, would someone provide a quick education on what the numbers that are being bandied about mean, and what is considered good verses bad performance?

LNB- essentially, and compared to other specialty retailing companies, Cabela's is very profitable, carries little debt, is growing at an above-average rate, but as an investment the company's stock price reflects these favorable characteristics and is selling at fairly high though not necessarily excessive valuations.