SADIF-Investment Analytics

8/10/2019 SADIF-Investment Analytics

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Contents:

Basics Pages (1 to 3).Highlights.StockMarks.Profile.Rating determinants

Benchmarks Pages (3 to 5).Sector

.Competitors

.Pairs

.Peers

Quality Drivers Pages (5 to 7).Business.Management.Price

Valuation Pages(7 to 8).Attractiveness.Nominal Rates.Fair value rates

Risk Page(8)

.Financial

.Market

Sentiment Page(9)

Estimates Page(10)

Recommendations Page(11)

Summary StockMarks Ratings for Lifetime Brands Inc were calculated in relation to the entire population of3919 United States-listed companies rated today, using a scale from 0 (worst) to 100 (best). For an explanationof each rating, see page 12. Readers should check for the latest news and events not yet reflected in thecompany financials.

Highlights

Lifetime Brands Inc is an average quality company with a neutral outlook.

Lifetime Brands Inc has medium business growth and is run by passablemanagement. The trend in Lifetime Brands Inc fair value exchange rateagainst its closest rated-competitor, National Presto Industries Inc., has beendepreciating over the past 2 weeks. When compared to its closest peer,Hooker Furniture Corporation, Lifetime Brands Inc shows similarovervaluation and is more likely to outperform the market.

Data as of Market Close: 2014-05-23

Summary Due Diligence Report

Will Lifetime Brands Inc Perform for Long-Term Investors?

StockMarks Ratings

Outlook

Total Quality Business Management Price Liquidity Volatility Outperformance

SMT SMB SMM SMP SML SMV SMO

2007-2014 Marques Mendes & Associados Lda (MM&A). All Rights Reserved. Please read disclaimer in page 12.

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Company Profile

Ticker Company Sector Industry Exchange

LCUT Lifetime Brands Inc CyclicalConsumer Goods

& Services

Appliances, Tools &Housewares

NASDAQ

Current Stock Price: 15.5400 Market Capitalization (M): 209.5230 Data as of MarketClose:

52-Week Range: 12.060 - 19.950 EPS: 0.5390 2014-05-23

Lifetime Brands Inc's registeredactivity is in the Appliances, Tools &Housewares industry. The companyis a small-cap stock currentlytrading at a multiple of 28.83 timesearnings.

Chart 1 shows the movements ofthe Total Quality StockMark (SMT)and share price expressed asindexes since we began rating thecompany.

While Lifetime Brands Inc's shareprice has remained flat in the lastquarter, the company's long-terminvestment rating (see Chart 1)

decreased over the same period.

What determines LifetimeBrands Inc's QualityStockMarks?

The SMT rating summarizes thetotal quality of the company fromthe point of view of value investors.It captures Warren Buffettsdefinition of a good investment as: agood business, run by honest and

competent management andbought at a fair price.

Lifetime Brands Incs long-terminvestment attractiveness rating(Total StockMark or SMT), depictedin Chart 2, is currently 42 and isdriven by management efficiency.

The trend in other determinants ofthe SMT quality rating is shown inthe same chart.


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Lifetime Brands IncSummary Due Diligence Report


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An important question is whetherLifetime Brands Incs underlyinglong-term fundamentals justify thestagnation in the company's share

price.

We can examine this issue usingthe StockMarks framework.

Ratings showing a positivetrend: Business; Volatility;Outperformance

Ratings showing a negativetrend:Total; Management; Price;Classic

Lifetime Brands Inc currently has anoverall quality rating significantlybelow the average of its sector.

Lifetime Brands Inc currently has anoverall long-term investment

attractiveness rating (TotalStockMark or SMT) of 42, placingLifetime Brands Inc below the SMTaverage of 51 for United States-listed companies.

This rating ranks Lifetime BrandsInc ninth when compared to ten ofits closest peers, (selected becauseof similarity of business, financialand market-positioning factors suchas size - see page 5).

How do the Lifetime BrandsInc's ratings rank amongselectedbenchmark groups?

StockMarks ratings werecalculated in relation to the total of3919 United States-listedcompanies rated today.

Although the scale from 0 to 100 isin itself meaningful, forbenchmarking purposes we need todefine a few relevant referencegroups, namely businesscompetitors, correlated stocks andvalue investing peers.

The top 10 companies used forbenchmarking were selected on thebasis of similarity.

First, in Chart 3, we compare thecompanys trend for each rating,followed by a comparison of thecompanys overall long-term

investment attractiveness rating(Total StockMark or SMT) inrelation to its sector (Chart 4).


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To quickly assess Lifetime BrandsIncs relative position the followingtables show the ratings of similarcompanies for these benchmark

groups.

Lifetime Brands Incs bestrank among competitors isfor the rating.

The closest competitor, NationalPresto Industries Inc., has asimilarity index of 58.3% and amarket share of 0.82% compared toLifetime Brands Incs market shareof 0.94% (See Table 1).

Lifetime Brands Inc

s competitorswere selected based on theregistration industry, total revenueand market capitalization amongrated companies (these do notinclude non-listed companies andforeign competitors, which may bemore significant).

Similarly, we calculated the industrymarket share only in relation torated companies. Therefore, a100% market share does not meanthat the company has no

competitors in the industry.

Skyline Corporation is the closeststock for pair trading with asimilarity index of 75%, defined onthe basis of market correlation,sector and trading volumes (seeTable 2).

To assess the recentconvergence/divergence trend,readers should use a chart tocompare the prices of the chosen

pair. SADIF subscribers may drawsuch charts in the Due DiligenceSection.

In general, pair trading requiresdegrees of similarity above 70%.

The success of pair tradingstrategies depends on theinvestors ability to forecast theconvergence path.

However, convergence itself mayonly happen if the two companiesare not diverging in a fundamentalway. Investors can evaluate thispossibility by comparing theStockMarks quality ratings shown inthe second table below.

T2. Benchmark group: Pair Trading

Ticker Company NameSimilarity

%SMT SMB SMM SMP

Company LCUT Lifetime Brands Inc 42 45 54 37

Pair 1 SKY Skyline Corporation 75.0 23 48 22 34

Pair 2 UNTD United Online, Inc. 75.0 8 15 18 23

Pair 3 HOFT Hooker Furniture Corporation 75.0 41 41 57 37

Pair 4 TUP Tupperware Brands Corporation 75.0 75 47 73 82

Pair 5 JOUT Johnson Outdoors Inc. 75.0 42 43 56 35Pair 6 KMG KMG Chemicals, Inc. 70.83 48 55 50 41

Pair 7 MTH Meritage Homes Corp 66.67 74 67 63 57

Pair 8 SIG Signet Jewelers Ltd. 66.67 66 48 65 69

Pair 9 CCO Clear Channel Outdoor Holdi... 66.67 34 38 43 52

Pair 10 IPG Interpublic Group of Compan... 66.67 45 43 53 52

In relation to its highest correlatedstocks (for pair trading) LifetimeBrands Incs best rank is sixth forthe Management Efficiency (SMM)

rating.

However, to assess pair tradingconvergence it is also important toconsider Lifetime Brands Incs worstranking, which is eighth for thePrice Attractiveness (SMP) rating.

T1. Benchmark group: Industry Competitors


%IndustryShare %

SMT SMB SMM SMP

Company LCUT Lifetime Brands Inc 0.94 42 45 54 37

Competitor 1 NPK National Presto Industries ... 58.3 0.82 46 33 68 41

Competitor 2 IRBT iRobot Corporation 58.3 0.88 61 49 60 62

Competitor 3 BNSOBonso ElectronicsInternati...

50.0 0.06 25 41 40 28

Competitor 4 TUPTupperware BrandsCorporation

50.0 5.1 75 47 73 82

Competitor 5 JAH Jarden Corp 50.0 13.32 50 50 53 50

Competitor 6 NTK Nortek Inc 50.0 4.3 56 49 48 77

Competitor 7 HELE Helen of Troy Limited 50.0 2.54 79 77 61 68

Competitor 8 WHR Whirlpool Corporation 50.0 35.36 42 39 57 41

Competitor 9 LBY Libbey Inc. 50.0 1.57 47 40 54 60

Competitor10

ELUXY Electrolux AB (ADR) 50.0 32.17 40 40 50 50


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Likewise, we should note the last-month price convergence, whichwas -20.7 in relation to its closestpair.

We selected also a group ofinvestment peers in terms of long-term operational and financialsimilarities (see Table 3). Becauseof the stringency of the criteriaused, not all companies have adegree of similarity greater than theminimum of 50% recommended forreliable benchmarking.

Among this group shown in Table 3,Lifetime Brands Incs best rank isfourth for the Business Quality

(SMB) rating.

For value driven investors it isimportant to highlght the position ofthe company in relation to itsclosest peers. The radar chartbelow provides a synopsis of all ofLifetime Brands Incs ratings incomparison to its top twoinvestment peers.

At this stage, some investors mayfind it useful to read the DueDiligence Reports for these peersor competitors.

The overall conclusion is thatLifetime Brands Inc is an averagequality company with a neutraloutlook.

Nevertheless, we need to lookfurther into its determinants byexamining each quality ratingseparately (see Chart 6).

How good is the LifetimeBrands Incs business?

Lifetime Brands Inc has mediumbusiness quality growth.

Lifetime Brands Inc currently has aBusiness StockMark (SMB) of 45,indicating that the company's long-term business growth rates are belowthe sector average of United States-listed companies.

C5. Peer Analysis

T3. Benchmark group: Investment Peers

Ticker Company Name

Similarity

% SMT SMB SMM SMP

Company LCUT Lifetime Brands Inc 42 45 54 37

Peer 1 HOFT Hooker Furniture Corp... 43.75 41 41 57 37

Peer 2 NTK Nortek Inc 41.67 56 49 48 77

Peer 3 ESCA Escalade, Inc. 41.67 57 53 62 45

Peer 4 FLXS Flexsteel Industries,... 39.58 48 45 60 39

Peer 5 HEDYY Head N.V. (ADR) 38.54 35 42 51 31

Peer 6 JOUT Johnson Outdoors Inc. 37.5 42 43 56 35

Peer 7 WHR Whirlpool Corporation 36.46 42 39 57 41

Peer 8 NPK National Presto Indus... 36.46 46 33 68 41

Peer 9 TUP Tupperware Brands Cor... 35.42 75 47 73 82

Peer 10 FLWS 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. 35.42 43 44 56 37


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The SMP takes into account bothfundamental and technical indicatorsto arrive at a rating of theattractiveness of a company's stock

to long term investors at its currentprice.

Lifetime Brands Inc currently has aPrice StockMark of 37, indicatingthat the market is overvaluingLifetime Brands Incs long-termfundamentals.

Chart 8 shows the SMP and theratings trend in of some of thecompany's key price valuationmultiples.

Investors should not focusexclusively on market price multiplesand earning yields trends. Theyneed to consider the most recentabsolute value of the SMP and itsdeterminants together with the SMPtrend.

First, to verify if the stock is caughtat a stationary level, indicating that itmay remain undervalued orovervalued for long periods.

Second, investors should assess if itis diverging or converging in relationto a fair valuation (SMP between 45-55).

On this count, we can observe thatLifetime Brands Inc is alreadyovervalued but has begun correctingits overvaluation.

To see if this situation is unique tothe company, we can check theexchange rate at which the stock is

trading in relation to its topcompetitors and peers.

The fair value exchange rateof Lifetime Brands Incs stockin relation to its closestcompetitor National PrestoIndustries Inc. is depreciating.

The nominal stock exchange ratebetween two stocks as given bycurrent market prices (shown inChart 9) may be misleading if

markets, as they often do, over-estimate or underestimate thepremium/discount relative tointrinsic value.

The valuation of stock-for-stockoffers in M&A transactions is quitecomplex when shareholders of theacquirer and the target

company hold significantly differentviews on the intrinsic value of theircompanies.


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Warren Buffett popularized the ideathat many air-for-assets riskyacquisitions take place during bullmarkets because overvalued

acquirers can afford to overpaybecause they are in effect using

stock as if it was counterfeit money.

The rates quoted give us the numberof benchmark shares that we couldbuy with one share of LifetimeBrands Inc.

Therefore, an increase/decrease inthe rate of exchange means thatLifetime Brands Inc isappreciating/depreciating.

Chart 10 shows the evolution of thefair value exchange rates forLifetime Brands Inc measured inindex form, in relation to some of itsbenchmark stocks.

The trend in the fair value exchangerates shown above is relevant notonly to adjust valuations but also to

assess the price outlook for LifetimeBrands Inc.

For instance, we can observe that inrelation to the first competitor,National Presto Industries Inc., thetrend during the last quarter hasbeen towards depreciation.

Unfortunately, the estimation ofintrinsic values is a very challengingtask.

However, we may minimize theproblem and bypass the need toestimate intrinsic values by adjustingthe nominal stock exchange rateswith our Price Attractiveness

StockMark (SMP), which estimatesthe degree of over/undervaluation atany level of the market premium ordiscount.

By adjusting the nominal rates bythe relative SMPs we obtain the fairvalue exchange rate.

Current nominal rates vs. fair valuestock exchange rates are shown inthe previous page (Chart 9).

Risk

The financial risk of LifetimeBrands Incs in terms of liquidity is

low, while in terms of marketvolatility risk it is also low. The tworisk measures are shown in charts11 and 12.

Financial risk

Leverage is a well-known double-edged sword that amplifies short-term returns and risks. That is thereason why we combine in theStockMarks Liquidity Rating(SML) the company capitalization

with its current ratio and short-term debt. The SML rating is on ascale of 0 (highest risk) to 100(lowest risk) and its trend,depicted in Chart 11, is low andincreased in the last quarter.

Currently the SML rating ofLifetime Brands Inc stands at 78,which compares favorably with theindustry median (41), but its worsethan that of its first competitor(79.6).

Market risk

The analysis of market risk isdone through the VolatilityStockMark (SMV) rating.

This rating combines the previousyear price variance and price levelwith long term market correlationin a way that we can interpret it inthe usual scale of 0 (worst) to 100(best).

Comparing the volatility rating ofthe Lifetime Brands Inc, which iscurrently at 70, with its closestcompetitor, National PrestoIndustries Inc., we see that itsmarket risk is 1.43 times lower.


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Although relevant in itself, the ratingis more useful when we compare itsevolution to the trend in stock price.

Chart 12 shows both in an index form.

Lifetime Brands Incs volatility riskoutlook is mixed.

It is also important to observe thetrend in the volatility of SMV becausethis provides a good indication aboutthe stickiness of short term pricemovements.

The market sentiment inrelation to Lifetime Brands Inc

is positive and is deteriorating

No due diligence is complete withoutconsidering the market sentiment inrelation to Lifetime Brands Inc,because it is paramount indetermining the stocks performancein the short to medium-term.

For this, we use the OutperformanceStockMark (SMO), which measuresthe likelihood of the company tooutperform the market in the near

term.

This rating combines the company'spast quarter price dynamics with itsmarket risk and total quality, in ascale from 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

Lifetime Brands Incs SMO iscurrently at 58.

Looking at its trend in Chart 13, wecan see that it is deteriorating overthe last two weeks. When comparedto its closest peer, Hooker FurnitureCorporation, Lifetime Brands Incshows similar overvaluation and ismore likely to outperform the market.

While, if compared to its firstcompetitor, National Presto IndustriesInc., Lifetime Brands Inc showssimilar overvaluation and is morelikely to outperform the market.


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Estimates

Although it is impossible to reliably predict future share prices, many investors use price targets to gauge investments.Likewise, corporations often manage earnings per share (EPS) to meet analyst consensus estimates for earnings.

Forward EPS estimates and market multiples

Price-to-Earnings (PE) and Price-to-Book Value (PBV) - used tocalculate our price targets are presented in Tables 6 and 7.

Book Value per Share (BVS)

The trends in Lifetime Brands Incsmarket and book values (shown inChart 14), allow investors to gaugehow markets value the company'sgrowth. Comparing the two mostrecent quarters with the previous two,we see that book values haveincreased by 0.8% while the

company's market value hasincreased by 4.5%. Nevertheless, thegap between the two narrowed in thelast month.

Earnings per Share (EPS)

Over the last two quarters available,Lifetime Brands Inc's earnings pershare deterioratedto0.54 comparedto earlier quarters. As shown in Table5, this represents a deterioration inrelation to the average earnings two

years ago. Comparing the trend inEPS and the trend in EarningsMultiple shown in Table 7, we observethat they moved in the same direction.

Our estimation, shown in Chart 15, isthat current earnings may fall to -1.58during the coming year. Our estimateis 221.5% below the currentconsensus estimate.

Market Multiples

The market currently values LifetimeBrands Inc at 1.11 times its bookvalue and 28.83 times its earnings.This compares fairly with the industrymedians, which are 2.25 and 16.29respectively. The six month trendshows that Lifetime Brands Inc's price-to-book has deteriorated but thatprice-earnings has improved (Tables6 and 7). The PBV and PE volatilitiesover the past three years measured interms of coefficient of variation were8.8% and 40.8% respectively.

T6. Quarterly PBV q4

Year Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2013 1.085 1.150 1.112 -

2012 1.014 0.788 0.946 1.005

2011 1.033 0.872 1.104 0.916

Values as calculated on the last day of each quarter

T5. Quarterly EPS q4

Year Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2013 1.488 1.400 0.539 -

2012 1.296 0.876 0.876 1.643

2011 1.235 1.482 1.564 1.119

LTM, adjusted for stock splits

T7. Quarterly PE

Year Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2013 9.852 10.929 28.831 -

2012 9.414 10.616 13.014 8.259

2011 8.899 6.356 7.717 9.625

Values as calculated on the last day of each quarter

Price Targets

We use our estimates andoutperformance rating (SMO) toderive Lifetime Brands Incs pricetarget. We do not take a view on themarket trend. Investors expecting themarket to rise (or fall) significantlyshould increase (decrease) the pricetarget accordingly.

Chart 16 shows that we expect thestock price to appreciate by 7.35 inabsolute terms to reach 22.89. And,in relation to its current level(15.5400), we estimate a potentialgain of 47.3% over the coming year.The lower and upper bounds shownsuggest good price target reliability.


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T9.Benchmark group: Industry Competitors


%IndustryShare %

SMR SMT SML SMO

Company LCUT Lifetime Brands Inc 0.94 73 42 78 58

Competitor 1 NPK National Presto I... 58.3 0.82 68 46 80 46

Competitor 2 IRBT iRobot Corporation 58.3 0.88 74 61 79 44

Competitor 3 BNSO Bonso Electronics... 50.0 0.06 21 25 41 24

Competitor 4 TUP Tupperware Brands... 50.0 5.1 55 75 20 68

Competitor 5 JAH Jarden Corp 50.0 13.32 31 50 41 29

1 Rating: 2 Rating: 3 Rating: 4 Rating: 5 Rating:

Strong Buy and/orVery Positive

Buy and/or Positive Hold and/or Neutral Sell and/or Negative Strong Sell and/or Verynegative

Positive and/or Buy ratings Neutral and/or HoldRatings

Negative and/or Sell Ratings

2

Good Above Average Average Below Average Risky

100-85 StockMarks 84-60 StockMarks 59-30 StockMarks 29-7.5 StockMarks 7.4-0 StockMarks

Recommendation

Lifetime Brands Inc rates as anabove average investment. Thecurrent SMR rating is 73/100. Thechart on the right shows the SMRtrend compared to the sell-sideconsensus recommendation on ascale of 0-100. Recommendationvalues are shown with one-yearlead time. Our last SMR revisionwas upward, and the month-to-month trend is positive.

For comparison, Table 9 showsour recommendations (SMR) and

other key ratings for thecompany's top 5 closestcompetitors in terms of similarity.

Stock Recomendations

Traditionally research providers make recommendations standardized as analyst consensus on a scale of 1 to 5 asshown below. We use a similar rating - SMR StockMarks with 5 categories, ranging from risky to good. The SMRrating takes into account price attractiveness, liquidity risk and market sentiment.

T8. Recent Trend

Date Trend SADIFRating

2014-04-08

aboveaverage

2013-12-13

average

2013-08-26

aboveaverage

Conclusions

The company's share price has risen sharply over the past year, but we believe underlying fundamentals to be theprimary determinant of long-term performance.

A StockMarks analysis of Lifetime Brands Inc reveals a company with an average quality and medium long-termbusiness growth. The likelihood of Lifetime Brands Inc stock to outperform the market as measured by theOutperformance StockMark (SMO) is slightly above average with a rating of 58 / 100.

The market risk associated with holding the shares as measured by the Volatility StockMark (SMV) is belowaverage with a rating of 70 /100. Overall, we believe Lifetime Brands Inc to be an above average long-term

investment.


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The StockMarks Ratings

Classical StockMark SMC)

Short-mediumtermattractivenessratingcombiningSMTandSMP.

Total Quality StockMark SMT)

Theoveralllong-terminvestment-attractivenessofacompanybasedonacombinedthreedimensionalanalysisofthreesub-ratings:Business,ManagementandPrice.

Business StockMark SMB)

Acompany'sbusinessqualitybasedonvariablesincluding:operatingmargin,saleselasticityandsalesgrowthrate.

Price StockMark SMP)

Acompany'spricequalityratingintermsofundervaluationreflectedbyvaluationmeasuressuchaspricetobook,pricetosalespershareandpricetoearningsper

share.

Management StockMark SMM)

Acompany'smanagementqualitybasedonthefollowingkeyindicators:returnonassets,earningsperemployeeandtheearningsgrowthrate.

Outperformance StockMark SMO)

Thelikelihoodofastocktooutperformthemarketbasedonthevaluationofthecompany,theSMVandtheSMT.

Volatility StockMark SMV)

Riskofthestockbasedonnumeroushistoricalanalysesofstockpriceandmarketcorrelation.

2007-2014 Marques Mendes & Associados Lda (MM&A). All Rights Reserved. This report is for information purposes only and is not a solicitation or advice to buy or sell anysecurity. The data contained within this report is not warranted to be accurate or complete. This report is only intended as a summary of SADIF's stock ratings and not arecommendation for stock purchase or sale. Redistribution of this report without explicit permission is strictly prohibited. All logos are the copyright property of their

respective companies and are used here only to aid the reader in identification of the subject of the article. The author of this article does not hold a position in any of thecompanies featured within this report.

Liquidity StockMarkSML)

Exceptforbanks,acompanysliquiditysafetyismeasuredbasedonitscapitalization,currentratioandtherelativeamountofshortdebtinrelationtomediumandlongtermdebt.

Recommendation StockMark

SMR)

Astockrecommendationbasedonpriceattractiveness,liquidityriskandmarketsentiment.

12Marques Mendes & Associados Lda. Rua Domingos F. Pinto Basto, 21 3830-176 Ilhavo, Portugal,


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