Titan Machinery: 6th Director RESIGNS

Titan Machinery (NASDAQ: TITN) last week filed a  DEF14 with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing that Lead Independent Director JAMES Irwin is resigning from the Board of Directors.

SIX of Titan Machinery's Nine Directors that sat on the Board in May 2015 have now gone including the Co-Founder Peter Christenson who suddenly resigned as President after the company filed a DEF14 in May 2015.

• March 2015 8K director James Williams announced his resignation as June 4,2015
• May 7,2015 DEF14 Titan files Proxy requesting Co-Founder/President Peter Christenson to vote the shareholders' shares but he does not appear as a director for the upcoming shareholder meeting......then 4 days later he resigned
• May 11,2015 8K CoFounder/President Peter Christenson Suddenly Announces his Resignation as President and enters into a consulting agreement through 2019 at $500,000 per year.
• September 2015 8K  Theodore Wright (Chairman of CONN) resigns effective immediately as director of Titan Machinery.
• April 2016 DEF14 Titan Machinery proxy does not include John Bode on ballot for board
• July 2016 NO 8K Independent Director Theodore Crosbie passed away. 

CLOSING STORES IN USA And Focusing on Growth in Europe

TITAN MACHINERY last month the closing of 15 more locations before July 31,2017 and announced FY2018 Sales are expected to decline for Fourth Consecutive Year and the company will not be profitable for a 4th consecutive year.

The closing of 14 Agriculture Locations in the USA will bring store total to 49 USA Agricultural Locations and the closing of 1 construction location will reduce Construction Locations down to 25 USA stores.

Titan has 20 International Locations but does not break down how many are AG and Construction.

• the 65 Agriculture Locations generated $739 million in sales in FY2017 and loss ($15,7 Million). Average of $11 million in sales per store.
• the 26 Construction Locations generated $323 million in sales in FY2017 and loss ($5.8 million). Average of $12 million in sales per store.
• the 20 International Locations generated $150 million in sales in FY2017 and loss ($0.5 Million) Average $7 million in sales per store.

Since November 2016 the stock has climbed from under $9 to $16 a share bringing the market capitalization above $350 million.   The Fundamentals below are from the most recent 10K. Why Wall Street is celebrating these weak financials and valuing the 100 locations at an average of over $3.5 million per location is the greatest example of a stock that is disconnected from the underlying fundamentals of its business. 

TITAN SCHEDULES MORE EQUIPMENT LIQUIDATIONS FOR MAY AND JUNE.  GOAL IS TO CONTINUE TO AGGRESSIVELY REDUCE INVENTORY THROUGH ALTERNATIVE CHANNELS.

 

SOME MAJOR RISKS FROM FY2017 10K

THE TIME TO SELL WAS WHEN THE DIRECTORS WERE SELLING:

 One time Chairman of ZNOMICS (Pink Sheets, ZNOM: one for 285 reverse split: ) is also co-founder of  TITAN Machinery. But there is no mention of ZNOMICS in the biography of the  TITAN director who is up for re-election DEF14A

Cherry Tree relationship Adam Smith Fund.
According to this SEC Filing Adam Smith is disclosed as a a "PROMOTER"

Fy2017 10K FOOTNOTES: DEBT, DEBT and more DEBT

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, 
A SEEKING ALPHA Writer Doesn't See Anything Criminal or Fraudulent at Titan Machinery that will cause the Stock to Blow UP.
(I on the other hand is not as confident as that writer and have commented on his article here)