The appeal of oversized woods and clubs from Cobra Golf and
Callaway Golf is examined by Leslie Norton of BARRON'S. The
"surging popularity of oversized clubs goes a long way toward
explaining" why both companies became "stock market darlings"
after going public a few years ago. But both stocks have
"slipped" in the past few months and they have been the "subject
of much debate" on Wall Street. Last week, Merrill Lynch
downgraded Callaway, noting concerns on slowing sales of
oversized woods as well as uncertainties associated with the
company's new extra-large wood. While CNBC's Dan Dorfman
continues his "bullish pronouncements" on both, BARRON's Norton
notes that more rivals are turning out their own versions of
oversized woods and new technology could slow sales for Cobra and
Callaway even more. Another "new threat" to Cobra and Callaway
are the mid-sized clubs. If midsized woods were to steal some of
the oversized crowd, "it would be a repeat of what happened in
tennis." Jumbo rackets were popular, but then sizes settled back
to something closer to the old standard (BARRON'S, 4/17 issue).
LOOK AT THE NUMBERS: Cobra reported net income of $10.4M
for the quarter ended March 31, a 132% increase from net income
of $4.5M in '94. Cobra's net sales increased by 106% to $56.2M
in '94. Cobra attributes the increase in sales in income to
continued demand for all of its oversized products and increased
marketing efforts (Cobra).
