We strive to be value-sensitive. We search for stocks selling at multiples equal to or below that of the S&P 500 and, ideally, as sales and earnings begin to accelerate in an effort to benefit from increasingly higher multiples on rising income streams. In addition, we also evaluate, when appropriate, enterprise value to EBITDA multiples paid by strategic and financial buyers at various stages of a business cycle.

MT prefers favorable financial characteristics, including the ability to generate excess free cash flow. As a rule, we do not consider money-losing companies unless the likelihood of profitability is imminent or the losses result from non-cash accounting charges and other adjustments.

Apparel, footwear and accessories businesses are very mature, growing no faster than the economy overall. The industry is characterized by excess retail square footage and global productive capacity, leading to little if any pricing power, but where there are opportunities to gain share with the correct fashion, merchandising, marketing and sourcing strategies for the targeted customer and/or distribution channel. Nonetheless, it is very difficult to sustain above-average (15-20% or higher) growth beyond a 5-10 year period.

Over the course of a 25 year-plus Wall Street career, Susan Sansbury has followed a wide variety of consumer hard- and soft-goods businesses with a number of full service investment banking firms and on the buy side. She started at Kidder, Peabody where she was a member of the Institutional Investor All Star team for five years. At Bear Stearns from the early 1990s to the end of 2001, she was recognized for her apparel and footwear research coverage with high Autex shares and Greenwich survey ratings. She founded Sassafras Capital, an independent research firm, before once again returning to the Street in 2003.