Pinned valuation:
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My 21-Jan-2020 12-month PT was $27.72. Old one was 22.77. Data Centres. Cloud Services. Cybersecurity. Customer Service Focus. Very high management ownership. Lots to like!
The MAQ SP is now double my original $22.77 price target, and well above my latest $27.72 PT. I think they are riding the cybersecurity and data centre megatrend wave currently, and there could be a pullback. They may have run too far too fast.
22-July-2020: My new 12-month price target for MAQ is $40, below the $46 level they are at currently, but if they go higher, I'll take it. I do hold MAQ shares. Realistically, they could pull back from here. But I have in the past sold out too early, so I'm just trimming my position up here and letting the rest run. Just because a company looks expensive does not mean they won't get even more expensive when they are in a hot sector.
Update: 17-Dec-2020: And that's exactly what happened. They just kept getting more expensive. There's no denying that MAQ are a great company that is very well run by two brothers with a massive amount of skin in the game (David and Aidan Tudehope own 54.63% of the company), however I don't know if they are worth over $50/share... Anyway, let's call this a momentum trade, and I'll make a not-very-brave forecast of $55 within 4 months, and $60 within 12 months. However, this is definitely a price target, not an intrinsic valuation. Same as my $330 PT for CSL. I think they'll get there, however I'm not sure if they're really worth that much... They'll get there because of the quality premium in the share price, and in MAQ's case, because they're in a hot sector - in fact TWO hot sectors - being (1) data centres (and cloud computing) and (2) cybersecurity. I do hold MAQ shares, however I've been trimming the position as they've been steadily rising, to lock in profits while still maintaining exposure.
18-June-2021: $60 is still OK for a PT (price target) for MAQ. Since I set it 6 months ago MAQ has mostly trades between $50 and $54, and the lowest they dropped to was $44.70 very briefly in March. So $60 isn't too much of a stretch. They are operating in a good space, and they are very good operators within that space, so I'm still a happy MAQ shareholder and I believe there is further upside from here. I would not be buying any more MAQ up here, but I did say that at much lower levels also.
12-Jan-2022: Update: Just got sent home from work as I'm deemed a close contact of someone who has tested positive for Covid-19. My RAT returned a negative result, so I have not got it myself, but I have to isolate at home for 7 days now and get paid for it, and take another RAT on day 6 (next Tuesday). I'll take it!
Perfect! OK, I'm raising my PT (price target) for MAQ, since they've been trading above my old one for the last 6 months. They look like they are struggling to push through $80, and they do look like they've got way too much upside priced in up there to be honest, but I think they can settle a little below $80, such as at $77, once they provide us with their next report, or otherwise announce some new decent data centre contracts.
I feel that MAQ get overlooked most of the time when people are considering DCs, cybersecurity and cloud computer services (web hosting, etc.), but they have a good presence in the space, and are doing very well.
I was originally attracted to the company by the founders (the Tudehope brothers, David and Aidan) still being heavily involved in the management of the company - David Tudehope is an executive director and MAQ's CEO, and Aidan Tudehope is also an executive director and their Managing Director- Hosting Group. They also each speak for just over 11.6 million MAQ shares, which is worth around $787 million at today's closing price of $67.90/share. Part of that 11.6 million shares that each of the Tudehope brothers control is their family company Claiward Pty Ltd, which holds 11m of those shares (just over 51% of the company). Plenty of skin in the game!
Macquarie Telecom also have/had a Danielle Tudehope listed as a Senior Vice President based in the USA, and I think she is their sister, but I'm not 100% on that, could also be a daughter of one of them; She doesn't show up in the Annual Report. She may no longer work for MAQ.
Further Reading:
AFR Story: Rich Lister David Tudehope on the keys to success (afr.com)
How Macquarie Telecom Group creates the world's best customer experience - UNSW BusinessThink
History: Macquarie Telecom Group: Cloud hosting, voice, mobile & data services
(10) David Tudehope | LinkedIn
(10) Aidan Tudehope | LinkedIn
FY21 Annual Report: https://macquarietelecomgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/MT_AnnualReportPT_FY2021.pdf
Excerpt from David Tudehope's "Chief Executive’s Message" from the 2021 Annual Report (on page 8):
"Seven consecutive years of profit growth reflects our commitment to our purpose of making a difference in markets that are underserved and overcharged, and our consistent strategy of investing in the growing data centre, cloud and cyber security markets.
"During FY21, we successfully completed development of Intellicentre 3 East and Intellicentre 5 South Bunker on budget.
"In FY22, the Group plans to make significant investments of between $121m and $133m primarily in our Macquarie Park Data Centre Campus, as well as for new cloud and cyber security platforms to enable growth.
"We are investing in Macquarie Data Centres’ staffing and technology to support our leading corporation contract win and continued growth, as well as investing in the fit out of two floors of IC3 East. We expect billing for the leading corporation contract will commence in the second half of FY22. The Australian Government has named Macquarie’s data centres as Certified Strategic, a designation meaning we are able to provide the highest level of security compliance available to support government data. In combination with our 200 Australian Government security-cleared specialists, Macquarie Government is well positioned to meet the cyber security and cloud needs of government agencies.
"We are investing in new staffing to drive growth in cyber security in our Government and Cloud Services businesses.
"Macquarie Cloud Services has shown strong revenue and profit growth through a hybrid offering that allows customers to utilise the cloud that is best fit for their software applications, whether colocation, private or Azure public cloud. We believe that their new cyber security offerings will complement this and drive further growth with corporate customers.
"Macquarie Telecom has seen continued strong demand for SD-WAN and new SD-LAN technologies that allow customers to monitor and optimise their site based network performance and utilisation with AI technology.
"Our outstanding customer experience, which is at the heart of our Company purpose, has been even more important to our customers as they rely to a greater extent on telecom, data centre and cloud services whilst their staff are predominantly working from home.
"In August 2021, we announced plans for Intellicentre 3 Super West, a new data centre which takes the Macquarie Park Data Centre Campus to 50MW IT load over time. This global scale campus will attract investment from multinationals looking to expand into the Asia Pacific region, appealing to both hyperscale and SaaS customers."
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So I hold MAQ here on SM and in RL - first added (in RL) at $15.20/share in late 2017, then bought more at $15.05 about a fortnight later in early Jan 2018, then bought more in March 2020 at prices ranging from $22.90 to $23.11/share. I've trimmed the position 3 times on the way up. As I said before they've been as high as $82/share on 31-Aug-2021, but I didn't managed to trim any way up there. They were only there for a day. They were a pretty small company when I bought my first MAQ shares, but they're a $1.5 billion company now. $77/share sounds good to me.
05-Mar-2023: Update: I have posted a straw (see below this valuation) regarding MAQ's excellent H1 of FY2023 results. They've been over $80/share, and they're going back there at some point. Meanwhile, happy to stay with my $77/share PT.
27th August 2025: Update post-FY25 Results:
MAQ-Full-Year-Results-Announcement.PDF
Full Year Results - Investor Presentation
Low growth, but still growth, and more profit growth on less revenue growth is good growth. EPS was flat. Nothing too exciting. Hence the market's muted response.
https://www.macquarietechnologygroup.com/investors/
https://www.macquarietechnologygroup.com/about-us/
https://www.macquarietechnologygroup.com/
Disclosure: Holding here on SM, was holding in my SMSF, sold them to buy something else a few weeks ago when they approached $70/share, having previously bought back in at closer to $60/share.
Not shooting the lights out, but good management with plenty of skin in the game - the Tudehope brothers own 41.32% of the company in their private investment vehicle, Claiward Pty Ltd (10,650,990 MAQ shares). David and Aiden Tudehope continue to run this business as owners, which is hardly surprising considering they do own almost half of MAQ.
Cybersecurity. Data Centres. Cloud Hosting Specialists. Heaps of Government clients, particularly in Canberra and Sydney. Lots to like!