Colgate Palmolive, a wellknown brand you might be using everyday, did you ever thought of buying stocks of this toothpaste, toothbrush and shaving cream manufacturer.
After stagnating through most of the 1990s and early 2000s, Colgate Palmolive (India) suddenly turned around in 2004 with a better product portfolio, improved advertising and cost cuts. The stock was languishing at Rs120 then.
It trades above Rs700 now. Shareholders have earned a 446% return over the same period. Colgate had always earned high RoE—an average of 86% over the past five years. Its sales and operating profit for the September 2009 quarter grew 17% and 61%, respectively, compared to the year-ago period.
The time to buy stocks of Colgate is when the market-cap comes down to 1.6 times sales and 9 times operating profit.
Provogue has an established and significant brand recall in both menswear and women's wear. Backward integration in the manufacture of apparel has resulted in higher operating margins. The improvement in sales from the discount chain Promart, and retail infrastructure development through a joint-venture are other positive factors for this retailer.
Issue Opens: Mar 17,2010 
It is a minor partner for ‘Ironman’ (a 3D animation serial) and a major partner for ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘Lassie’ (other animation series). These co-production agreements not only provide production revenues at usual profit margins, but also helps DQ to obtain equity participations, for a share of the license revenues. The focus on co-production has provided the company an opportunity to leverage its existing expertise in content creation, while at the same time adopting a low-risk approach.
About three-fifth of the revenues currently comes from 3-D animation projects, whilst low margin 2-D accounts for the remaining. A combination of manpower cost reduction and higher revenues from high-end 3D animation should ensure that margins sustain at these levels.