RE:RE:Oil at $80 , ..trading below book mostly cash,no debt I agree that this looks cheap on a balance sheet basis and I admire their old-fashioned approach to keeping the balance sheet in conservative good order. Much like Galvanic Applied Sciences (which had some of the same top people) from its publicly-traded days pre-2013.
That said, there's reason to be concerned TLA will never be ahead of the curve technologically. Here's one way to try to get a read on that. A while back I raised here the question of whether TLA had any presence in the market for level guages for RAIL CARS (as opposed to TRUCKS). The impression I went away with was that TLA is not able to break into that market. I have no idea if they used to be in it and got elbowed out--or if they have never been in it.
Regardless, this may suggest that TLA is a technological also-ran. If so then that might suggest that TLA is ultimately a value trap--no matter how cheap it looks on a balance sheet basis.
I totally hope I'm wrong. I own shares and I admire the people who run TLA. But this is something you want to think about before you throw your life savings into it.
If you like small, cheap, and well-run there's another company that you might want to take a look at--that also has ties to the Galvanic of long ago.
Supremex. Currently a big & appears-to-be-reliable cash flow producer. Trades at about 2x EBITDA.
Much the same could be said of Circa Enterprises.