Can Strong Jobs Numbers Help Monster Worldwide? (MWW)

The first Friday of the month is synonymous with the monthly jobs report that comes from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Last Friday, the BLS stated that the economy added 244,000 jobs during the month of April – the most since an eight-month string that started in November 2006. This is the seventh consecutive month of job increases in America.

Given the streaky jobs report numbers, the average investor may look at Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW) as a way to play the job recovery. In 2007, when the job market had "peaked," Monster Worldwide was trading as high as $54. But a few years of economic slowdown and the stock is down to $16.11.

Having missed most of the current upturn, investors have to ask themselves if Monster Worldwide will be able to capitalize on what looks to be a period of job growth. At least one major brokerage thinks that MWW investors should look elsewhere. Deutsche Bank has a Sell rating and a $9 price target on the stock based on a 25x multiple of 2012 EPS. The same price target implies a 28x multiple for Deutsche Bank's EPS estimate of $0.33 in 2011.

Margin contraction has been a significant issue for the company, as blogs and other social media sites viewed job postings as some of the lowest hanging fruit as means to monetize their sites. MWW saw market share declines over the past few years, and the decrease was exasperated by a decreasing number of available job posts.

In late April, the company reported first-quarter results that included bookings of $272M; the company had previously guided to bookings of between $259M-$269M. The company also guided bookings for 2Q2011 of between $250M-$260M, implying a deceleration of growth. The company is expected to release its 2Q2011 earnings in late July.