NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Polypore International Inc. are higher by 12.77% to $59.71 on heavy volume in late morning trading on Monday, following the high technology filtration company's announcement that it has signed a definitive agreement with Asahi Kasei Corp. regarding the sale of the company. The Japanese chemical company will acquire Polypore International for $60.50 per share in cash through a U.S. subsidiary. "The per share consideration represents and enterprise value for the company of approximately $3.2 billion and a premium of approximately 24% over the volume weighted average per share price for the 20 trading days up to and including February 20, 2015," Polypore said in a statement. Exclusive Report: Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for 2015 Prior to Asahi Kasei's purchase of Polypore, 3M Co. will acquire the assets of Polypore's Separations Media unit for a price of about $1 billion. The cash proceeds from the asset sale will go to Asahi Kasei. "The combination of our energy storage business with Asahi Kasei and our Separations Media business with 3M are excellent strategic fits, which we believe create value for our people, customers and shareholders," said Polypore CEO Robert Troth. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates POLYPORE INTERNATIONAL INC as a Buy with a ratings score of B-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate POLYPORE INTERNATIONAL INC (PPO) a BUY. This is driven by some important positives, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, compelling growth in net income, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, solid stock price performance and growth in earnings per share. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had somewhat disappointing return on equity." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 9.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 8.9%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share. The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Electrical Equipment industry. The net income increased by 80.8% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $7.02 million to $12.69 million. PPO's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81 is somewhat low overall, but it is high when compared to the industry average, implying that the management of the debt levels should be evaluated further. Despite the fact that PPO's debt-to-equity ratio is mixed in its results, the company's quick ratio of 1.50 is high and demonstrates strong liquidity. Powered by its strong earnings growth of 190.00% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 58.08% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. We feel that the stock's sharp appreciation over the last year has driven it to a price level which is now somewhat expensive compared to the rest of its industry. The other strengths this company shows, however, justify the higher price levels. POLYPORE INTERNATIONAL INC reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, POLYPORE INTERNATIONAL INC reported lower earnings of $0.73 versus $1.27 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($1.43 versus $0.73). You can view the full analysis from the report here: PPO Ratings Report
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