Welcome to CreditPulse

CreditPulse is an online journal for credit and finance professionals that provides in-depth coverage, analysis and perspective in specific areas of credit risk management, accounting and credit markets.  CreditPulse also monitors the credit standards and performance benchmarks of public companies through its proprietary Credit Standards Index.

Learn More about the Credit Standards Index
Rank Company Industry Revenue* Bad Debt Allow DSO Ops Cash as % of Rev Current Ratio Debts/ Assets CSI Score
1 Arena Resources Inc
Tulsa, OK
 Oil/Gas-Independent 208,859 0.0% 20.05 84.9% 4.52 0.18 1.00
2 Monolithic Power Systems Inc
Los Gatos, CA
 Semiconductor 160,511 0.0% 20.73 24.7% 5.53 0.16 1.00
3 Tessera Technologies Inc
San Jose, CA
 Semiconductor Equip 248,291 0.4% 21.65 27.6% 7.21 0.11 1.00
4 Gen-Probe Inc
San Diego, CA
 Medical Equip/Supplies 472,695 2.1% 25.79 37.7% 13.49 0.06 1.00
5 United Microelectronics
Hsinchu City, Taiwan
 Semiconductor 3,071,496 0.1% 31.62 46.7% 5.37 0.15 1.10
* in thousands
Rank Industry No. of Comp Write- Offs Int'l Sales Bad Debt Allow DSO Ops Cash as % of Rev Current Ratio Debts/ Assets CSI Score
1 Semiconductor 89 51% 70.00% 3.2% 41.56 15.0% 4.69 0.33 2.18
2 Diagnostic Substances 10 83% 15.80% 3.1% 58.23 18.0% 4.96 0.22 2.29
3 Biotechnology 17 147% 25.60% 2.4% 58.09 23.0% 4.77 0.37 2.32
4 Mining/Quarrying 28 14% 27.80% 1.4% 35.44 21.0% 1.77 0.54 2.45
5 Oil/Gas-Independent 63 27% 3.60% 2.3% 37.09 57.0% 1.20 0.56 2.46

Recent Articles

Pension Risks: Accounting Change Could Inflate Pension Gains

April 16, 2012

Some big companies are changing the way they account for their pension plans in a way that could pad earnings if interest rates start to rise.  "I don't know that analysts are even going to know that is going on."

More and more companies, particularly those with large employee pensions, have switched to fair value or mark-to-market accounting for calculating actuarial gains and losses rather than amortizing them over a period of years, thus positioning for potentially sizable earnings boosts in coming years, according to a Ga Tech professor.

view

Top 10 Biotechnology Risk Factors

March 15, 2012

As the biotech and biopharmaceutical industries grow in economic importance, driven mainly by investment capital, the credit risk factors associated with these research firms are coming into clearer focus.

May 27, 2011 was a big day for Optimer Pharmaceucticals, a seemingly high-risk biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, California.  That was the day that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the company's leading product candidate -- a drug called DIFICID

view

Noteworthy 2011: Key Quotes From the Past Year

February 15, 2012

Government involvement in the free market has had a profound affect on credit markets and credit risk much to the dismay of some of the brightest minds in economics and politics.  "A gift to Wall Street that won't stop giving."

"I am convinced that the existence of too big to fail financial institutions poses the greatest risk to the U.S. economy," said Thomas M. Hoenig, then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in a speech in Washington, D.C. on February 23, 2011.

view

Sovereign Debt, Slow Growth Make For a Volatile 2011

January 30, 2012

Credit risks related to sovereign debt is at an all-time high as some of the world's most developed nations and their financial institutions struggle to remain solvent in an era of deleveraging.  "Famine following feast."

The political, economic and financial risk of doing business around the world soared in 2011 as more and more nations, banks and companies grappled with increasingly uncontrollable amounts of debt.  Read what Swiss Bank UBS has to say about the decade ahead in this CreditPulse special report.

view

The Most Volatile World Currencies in 2011

January 23, 2012

Political and economic instability roiled the world's currency markets in 2011 and were the principle drivers for the most volatile world currencies, according to volatility data on 116 world currencies.

Despite intervention by some central banks, most notably China, the global currency markets -- in which sovereign currencies are bought and sold to facilitate trade and foster economic activity -- remain one of the true free market mechanisms in our global economy.  Find the hot spots for currency volatility in this CreditPulse exclusive.

view

Increased Bank Stock Volatility Signals Possible Danger

December 16, 2011

Many in the media and financial world seem convinced that the U.S. economy is on the road to recovery, but two scholars point to increased bank stock volatility as a sign of more trouble ahead.  "A bright red warning signal."

In the last half of 2011, the standard deviation percentage, or volatility, of bank stocks in the United States began to increase eclipsing the critical 3 percent mark in a manner remarkably similiar to what occurred in 2008 before the credit crisis.

view
Subscribe Now

Perspective

CSI Rankings

Wholesale Distribution

86 Companies in the CSI

  1. Innophos Holdings Inc 

    Cranbury, NJ

    CSI Score: 1.60

  2. Fastenal Co

    Winona, MN

    CSI Score: 1.80

  3. Hawkins Inc

    Minneapolis, MN

    CSI Score: 2.10

  4. Schiff Nutrition Int'l Inc

    Salt Lake City, UT

    CSI Score: 2.10

  5. Olympic Steel Inc

    Bedford Heights, OH

    CSI Score: 2.20

  6. Weyco Group Inc

    Milwaukee, WI

    CSI Score: 2.20

  7. Reliance Steel & Aluminum

    Los Angeles, CA

    CSI Score: 2.30

  8. Houston Wire & Cable Co

    Houston, TX

    CSI Score: 2.40

  9. RC2 Corp

    Oak Brook, IL

    CSI Score: 2.40

  10. Sigma-Aldrich Corp

    St. Louis, MO

    CSI Score: 2.40

Based on 2009 figures

Noteworthy