ARNIE GELLER SEES

dead people all the time. As the brains behind "Bodies...The Exhibition," he can only hope that millions of the morbidly curious are willing to fork over $20 apiece to see them too.

Geller runs Premier Exhibitions, a $463 million company that operates "Bodies" shows around the globe. The museum-style exhibits, which have become an international sensation, feature preserved cadavers in various poses with skin peeled back to reveal the human form in all its musculoskeletal glory.

Controversy has helped pull in crowds. Premier's use of actual bodies rather than models has raised more than a few eyebrows. The company says it legally obtains specimens from the Dalian Medical University Plastination Laboratories in China, but there's been media speculation that some of the bodies are those of executed prisoners or other victims of an underground anatomy market. Premier maintains the bodies used in its shows are unclaimed cadavers.

Provocative ideas are often lucrative ones, and though Premier has been public since 1993, it's just starting to get respect on Wall Street. Shares have gained 158% year to date to $15.65 as of Wednesday's close. "We believe the company's stock price has only recently begun to reflect its potential for significant sales and earnings growth," Chris Krueger, an analyst at Northland Securities in Minneapolis, said in a research report in late July. Shares hit a 52-week high of $18.62 on July 18.

In Premier's fiscal first quarter, ended May 31, revenue nearly doubled to $11.4 million and earnings about tripled to $3.3 million. Cash and cash equivalents are up to $19.7 million, a substantial increase from $2.5 million a year earlier.

Geller, the current chief executive who will move into the post of executive chairman in October, says the company expects to continue accumulating cash and is looking forward to "having the problem of figuring out what to do with it."

As popular as "Bodies" is now, a big question for investors is what will the company do for an encore once the buzz inevitably dies down. Atlanta-based Premier has said it plans to roll out new exhibits in the future, but it has kept a tight lid on specifics. "I can only tell you that there are many exhibitions in the pipeline and I'm anxious to get to the point where we can make some announcements," Geller says.

What is now Premier began 20 years ago as a company exploring the wreckage of the ill-fated Titanic ocean liner, which sunk in 1912 after hitting an iceberg. In 1994, Premier won the exclusive rights to recover artifacts from the vessel, and it went on to build its business by putting its finds on display in exhibits around the world. To date, more than 18 million people have viewed the Titanic exhibitions. Yet similar to "Bodies," the Titanic show proved controversial, and questions surrounding claims to the Titanic wreckage ensnared Premier in legal troubles that hampered growth for years.

In 2004, Premier came out with "Bodies," and that single exhibit has multiplied to 11 exhibitions around the world. In the latest quarter, 80% of Premier's revenue came from "Bodies" while 20% came from the Titanic displays. The typical "Bodies" exhibit draws between 250,000 to 300,000 people who pay an average of $20 a ticket, generating revenue of $5 million to $6 million, according to Northland Securities' Krueger.

"The number of exhibits is growing dramatically and there is more room to grow," says Jeffrey James, portfolio manager of the small-cap growth fund at Driehaus Capital Management in Chicago, which has held Premier's stock since January. James also believes "there's a hidden asset value in the stock" from all of the company's Titanic assets, a good amount of which remains to be recovered from the wreckage. "The value is considerable and given the company's market cap, it's attractive," James says.

For the current year, the three analysts who cover Premier expect it to generate, on average, earnings of 69 cents per share, according to Thomson Financial. One of those analysts believes Premier's earnings will grow 30% annually over the next several years. If that's correct, then Premier is trading at a roughly 42% discount to the S&P 500 index.

"They generate a ton of cash," says George Grose, director of research at American Capital Partners in Hauppauge, N.Y. "They know how to run exhibitions profitably. If you just add some more exhibitions, that's where this company could grow larger and you could really have some meaningful earnings."

Earlier this month, Premier tapped Bruce Eskowitz, formerly an executive at Live Nation, which runs a search engine for live music shows around the country, to become its new president and CEO. The appointment removes the question of succession for Geller, who founded the company and is now in his late 60s. "That sends a sign that they're really here to grow the company to the next level," Grose says, adding that it also makes the prospect of a takeover of Premier less likely in the near future.

The success of "Bodies" has shown Premier to be more than a one-hit wonder. As with other entertainers, the task ahead is for it to stay in the limelight.