Comfort Systems USA

Comfort Systems USA, Inc. (FIX - Snapshot Report) is another solid Growth and Income pick Its most recent income payout was a quarterly dividend of $0.045 per share, which equates to a yield of 1.4%. Growth is evident in the company’s first-quarter earnings per share of 20 cents, which soared past the year-prior four cents and jumped ahead of the consensus estimate by nearly 54%.

Company Description

Comfort Systems USA provides commercial and industrial heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and building automation services. Headquartered in Houston, Texas and with more than 85 locations nationwide, the company is able to deliver high quality engineering, design, installation, energy assessment as well as repair and maintenance services across the U.S.

Income

The company’s most recent income payout was a quarterly dividend of $0.045 per share, which equates to a yield of 1.4%. This dividend was paid on June 20, 2008.

Growth

Growth is evident in the company’s first-quarter earnings per share of 20 cents, which soared past the year-prior four cents and jumped ahead of the consensus estimate by nearly 54%. Sales came in 18% higher than the previous year’s total.

The company said same store revenue grew by 13%, citing the fine execution by its team members, successful business development and diversification at many existing operations, good underlying activity levels and good weather for construction activity. Comfort Systems added that recent acquisitions also made a strong contribution. Its Atlas subsidiary, which experienced grave challenges in 2007, is on track with its recovery plan and broke even for the quarter.

Comfort Systems USA's Chairman and CEO Bill Murdy stated, "Although we are keenly aware of the economic challenges that we all face, today our business activity pipeline remains active. Our Company's culture was formed in adverse conditions, and with the growth and improvements we have worked on over the past few years we believe that we are prepared to weather any business climate. Backlog is up compared to last year, and we continue to feel very positive about our prospects for 2008."

Rising Estimates

While the Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company demonstrated strong growth so far, Wall Street also sees a promising future as indicated by upward revisions of earnings forecasts. Analyst forecasts for the full-year 2008 were lifted from the two-months ago level of $1.08 per share to $1.17.