Asia Info Holdings

AsiaInfo Holdings (ASIA) Today we're going to take a look at Asia Info Holdings, which was featured in the New America section in the May 6 edition of the paper.The China-based company supplies software and services to that country's telecom industry. The Chinese government recently allowed wireless companies to provide landline phone service. And it allowed landline firms to provide wireless service.That's meant those companies have had to add equipment, which has helped bolster sales at Asia Info.• Its sales growth has come in between 32% and 46% during the past four quarters � not bad given the worldwide economic slowdown.• Its earnings growth ranged from 22% to 45% during the same period. While that's not as good as it was back in 2007, it's still very respectable.• Looking ahead, analysts expect earnings to rise 29% in both 2009 and 2010.• The company has a return-on-equity rate of 14%, which is a little light.• Normally you like to see return-on-equity of at least 17% which is what history's biggest winners tend to show. ROE is a measure of the operational efficiency of a company.• Still, the stock has caught the attention of some mutual funds. The firm counted 50 funds among its shareholders at the end of the first quarter. In all, mutual funds own about 13% of its shares.• The stock does have an E Sponsorship Rating, which isn't good. That rating is based on the performance of all the funds that are invested in the stock• So even with a poor rating, it could still have some better funds among the investors. To drill down into this, check the Fund Center, a premium tool from Daily Graphs Online.

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