New Industry Consolidator - NBTY Inc (NTY)

The highly fragmented, but growing nutritional supplement business has a new industry consolidator, NBTY Inc (NYSE: NTY). With 28 acquisition in 20 years, it has all brands in its sleeve, including Rexall, Good 'N Natural, Met-Rx, Flex-a-min and Ester-C.

Last year’s major acquisition was Leiner Health Products for $371 million. All this positive scenario, while the pound weakened against the dollar in the UK, where NBTY has more than 600 stores across the nation, under the brands of Holland & Barrett and GNC. The result has been a decline of earnings by 23% to $2.33 per share. But third quarter reports claim otherwise. The profits jumped by 25% and sales rose by 22%, but still below expectations, say analysts.