Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR - Analyst Report) just hit a new 52-week and all-time high at $88.65 after reporting awesome Q1 results on Jan 28 that were easily ahead of estimates.

Company Description

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. operates in the specialty coffee industry in the United States and internationally as a wholesaler and retailer. The company was founded in 1981 and has a market cap of $3.67 billion.

First-Quarter Results

Sales were up 77% from last year to $349.4 million. Earnings came in at 27 cents per share, 11 cents ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The company has surprised in each of the last four quarters by an average of 8 cents, or 36%.

Green Mountain's amazing sales growth was driven by its K-Cup portion packs, a one cup specialty home-brew package, where sales were up 101% from last year to $172 million. The company also saw big gains in its Kuerig brewer and accessories sales, with sales up 86.5%.

Green Mountain complimented its sales by expanding its gross margin 2% to 29.1% on manufacturing efficiencies.

Estimates Spike

Estimates jumped higher on the good quarter, with the current year adding 9 cents to $1.99. The next-year estimate is up 26 cents in the last few months to $2.68, a bullish 35% growth projection.

Valuation

After close to a year of big gains, GMCR doesn't come cheap, trading with a forward P/E multiple of 42X, a steep premium to the overall market.

The Chart

Shares of GMCR have been trending higher for most of the last 10 months after bottoming out with the overall market in March. More recently, shares spiked higher on word of the good quarter to hit a new 52-week and all-time high. Take a look below.

Michael Vodicka is the Momentum Stock Strategist for Zacks.com. He is also the Editor in charge of the market-beating Zacks Surprise Trader Service.

Read the full analyst report on GMCR