TNS Inc. presented a "fairly upbeat" investor conference Thursday after a year of upheaval when the company missed earnings estimates and its founder tried to take it private, an analyst wrote in a note.
Chris Penny, an analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. Inc., wrote to investors Friday that the Reston, Va., provider of data services for card transactions appeared to be "heading in the right direction," though "some issues" remain, "such as access fees that it is working through."
In the past year, TNS' former chairman and chief executive, John J. McDonnell Jr., made several attempts to buy and take private the company he founded in the early 1990s. His last offer, for $16 per share, was rejected in January by the TNS board, which said it undervalued the company.
Mr. McDonnell was forced out of his posts by the board last fall.
Mr. Penny wrote that management indicated "for the first time" that the company's assets, "which all have something tied to a common backbone," could be separated.
In an interview Friday, Mr. Penny said that past management under Mr. McDonnell had indicated that these assets, particularly TNS' telco unit, its lowest-margin business, could not be separated because they were intertwined. But with the proliferation of broadband Internet access, he said, TNS is "less reliant on the dial-up."
But Mr. Penny stressed that the company has in no way said it is planning to sell anything.
He reiterated his "outperform" rating for the stock, with a target price of $18 per share. TNS shares closed Friday at $11.88, up 1 cent for the day.
