This column is for investors willing to take more risk and potentially receive more reward.  The stocks mentioned in this column are not recommended to buy or sell.  They're brought to your attention so you can investigate them further to determine if they fit your risk profile.  Most of the stocks will have less than $1 billion of market capitalization, have more volatility than other stocks, and oftentimes no earnings.  And some will have tremendous stories.

November 25, 2011 - Manhattan Associates, Inc. (MANH-NASDAQ) develops and provides supply chain software solutions for the planning and execution of supply chain activities. The company offers Manhattan SCOPE and Manhattan SCALE, which are platform-based supply chain software solutions.

Manhattan SCALE is a portfolio of logistics execution solutions. It also provides professional services, including planning and implementation services; and customer support services, as well as training services. In addition, Manhattan Associates, Inc. sells computer hardware, radio frequency terminal networks, audio frequency identification chip readers, bar code printers and scanners, and other peripherals.

It serves suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and logistics providers. The company operates in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia/Pacific. Manhattan Associates, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Any company set to deliver earnings up 62% this year deserves a closer look. MANH is projected to finish with $2.23 a share this year compared to $1.38. Most companies would be happy to match last year's final numbers. Manhattan's third quarter's earnings were up 150% over 2010's third period. The reasons: new clients, more products and rising demand in the licensing group.

To further help earnings per share (EPS), the company is buying back its stock. This year alone, it took 6% of the shares off the market and has $50 million more to spend on the program. That's over 1 million shares from a stock that has only 20.433 million outstanding or about 5% of the stock.

With strong demand for its products and services, Manhattan is hiring and expanding. It added about 75 people to its Professional Services Group and announced a commitment to hire at least 100 more for its Research & Development group. New customers recently added were Abercrombie & Fitch and Winn-Dixie stores. They were a big help in growing sales to $85.6 million (vs. $74 million last year in the third quarter). Expect more big retailers to sign contracts as the company keeps adding new products and services to attract them.

New products include Warehouse Management which has integrated features with other software and Distributed Order Mangement which offers better efficiency over the existing distributed selling solutions, and Extended Enterprise Management which improves a store's ordering process.

- Essential Numbers:
- Trailing P/E: 23
- Price to sales ratio: 2.74
- Price to book: 5.33
- Operating margin: 16.22%
- Profit margin: 12.87%
- Return on equity: 24.15%
- Return on assets: 12.08%
- Revenues for the last 12 months: $317.23 million
- Total cash: $100.8 million
- Total cash per share: $4.87
- Total debt: 0
- Current ratio: 1.88
- Book value per share: $7.89
- Beta: .80
- 52 week change: 32.35%
- Total shares Outstanding: 20.433 million
- Held by insiders: 1.84%
- Held by institutions: 99%
- There is no dividend.

Aggressive investors will like this story. But be aware that this stock has come from a low of $13.90 in early 2009 to its current price. It hasn't traded in the $40 range since 2001 so investors have already discovered and loved this one. And while this year's earnings growth is impressive, analysts expect next year to be $2.38, up 6.7%. If the company can sign a few more large retailers, expect that number to go higher.