Forum Topics EVS EVS General discussion
Strawman
3 months ago

What a difference a month can make -- Envirosuite up >60% since December 15. No news, mind you.

Felling good about taking the opportunity to buy more at much lower prices, and a good reminder that you cant assume the market knows what it is doing (thank god). Although, I should be careful not to do a victory lap -- shares could easily get cut in half from here!!

Still, it's noteworthy that since i started my Strawman position in November 2017, shares have done this:

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In other words, not much!!

But the unexpected thing is that over this period I've generated a 35%pa CAGR, on a money weighted basis. How? I bought when shares were well below my valuation estimate, and sold off when it materially exceeded it. The timing with these trades was, for the most part, terrible -- I could have bought at far lower prices and sold at far higher prices. I suck at timing.

But I wouldn't classify this as 'trading' -- just ensuring my exposure made sense relative to what I conservatively estimated the true intrinsic value to be.

I'd like to say it's similar with Catapult -- another one that has been a real test of faith -- which remains 20% below the price I first paid for it on Strawman. My overall CAGR on Strawman is slightly negative, but would have been MUCH better if I was a more aggressive buyer when it was out of favour, and a more aggressive seller when it materially exceeded my valuation. Instead, for some reason I can't explain, I did neither.

Of course, you don't want to play these games with super high quality, high conviction, long runway potential companies (yes, i'm looking at you ProMedicus!) but I thought it worth pointing out the benefit of anchoring trade decisions to a sensible measure of true value. As well as the folly of ignoring your valuation and letting the market drive your decisions..

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JPPicard
3 months ago

I think this is an under discussed, and under-exploited area to significantly increase your returns which I've started to appreciate much more in the last few years.

I also learned this mostly thanks to @Strawman ; not you, but the platform that is (thanks for building the tool!). When I look at my actual portfolio and compare it against my Strawman portfolio, my returns on some of my holding is significantly different; that's because I don't trade in an out here, and I do IRL. Another interesting thing is that just like you, I suck at timing too! I could always have bought for less, and sold higher. Still I win in the longer term.

A good podcast on this I listened to recently was "How Turtle Creek Beat the Market Since 1998 | Value Investing Masterclass w/ Andrew Brenton (TIP592)"

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Rick
3 months ago

This is an interesting discussion @Strawman and I also find it interesting you don’t consider this ‘trading’. I still think it’s trading, but it’s a special class of trading, perhaps you could call it ‘value informed trading’. It’s a strategy I have used in the past and I still use. However, I have got this horribly wrong with a number of businesses, mostly the high growth better quality stocks that continue compounding your investment at very high rates of return.

I can remember selling Cochlear for a profit at $40, and again recently at $240 for a profit. It’s now trading at $290.

These type of businesses are the critical ones you can’t afford to get wrong, and taking short term profits can be a huge mistake. It’s always hard to know when to buy back in.

The team at InvestSmart call these types of businesses the ‘Never Sell Stocks” and from time to time they reflect on which businesses fit into this category. I’m not sure this is the best approach either.

What are the characteristics of these stocks? I think they are businesses with a very high ROE (30% plus, eg. PME has ROE of 44%) that can reinvest most of their earnings back into organic growth at similar or higher ROE. The earnings and equity compound exponentially. The trap in trading these types of stocks is they grow so quickly you get priced out extremely quickly and can’t get back in without paying a higher price.

So while ‘value informed trading’ can be a great strategy, you need to be extra careful trading high quality growth stocks. Banks are fine…go your hardest!

Since I have been using McNiven’s formula to value businesses (over a decade), I’ve learned you can’t compare the estimated returns of ‘high quality growth stocks’ and ‘value stocks’ and use this as a basis for trading. I’ve learned that most of the time the market is prepared to pay such a high multiple for the best quality stocks that the forward return on investment (according to McNivens formula) is sometimes as low as 4% (the case for PME at $97). Most of the very high quality businesses sit in the 5% to 10% investor return range according to the formula. Whereas a less reliable, low growth ‘value stock’ might promise a future return of between 10% and 20% which may or may not turn out to be correct, depending on the future performance of the business.

You just can’t afford to get it wrong with your best quality businesses!

Cheers,

Rick

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Strawman
3 months ago

Strongly agree @Rick (I sold my Cochlear for $60 back in the day for a 50% profit -- thought i was a genius..)

Trading in and out of these can be an extremely costly mistake. They are extremely rare though, which is another reason to hang on for dear life when you find them, don't overthink the valuation (although don't ignore it completely), and even 'average up' along the way.

And, yeah, fair cop, I'm probably just playing semantics by saying I'm not "trading". But for me the distinction is about trying to appropriately position your exposure with a view to the risk/return potential, as opposed to trying to speculate on near term market price movements. I like the phrase you used: "value informed trading".

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Strawman
3 months ago

ah good recommendation @JPPicard -- i like that podcast but haven't yet listened to that episode. Will add to my playlist now.

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Rick
3 months ago

Thanks @JPPicard. I’ve got this podcast saved for later.

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Hackofalltrades
3 months ago

Fantastic discussion folks. The difficulty then is getting our valuations accurate enough to be able to benefit from the markets gyrations.


Something I have been wondering is if in the straws/valuations we write, it might be possible to have some more information we can input regarding the perceived quality of the business, the management, etc.. Yes we can just write all this information, but I wonder if there might be a better way for us to organise all this information. I might write more on this later.

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Strawman
3 months ago

Excellent point I should have made @Hackofalltrades -- it only works if your valuation is reasonable!

Also, i've been thinking a lot about quality scores too. There has to be someway to easily integrate that.. I'll continue to ponder it.

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Rick
3 months ago

@Hackofalltrades I think you’re on to something. A quality rating to complement Strawman valuations would be a worthwhile addition to the Strawman platform. It would at least create some discussion amongst members about what constitutes a quality stock.

Without any words and just a few graphs, I think this is what top quality looks like. No prizes for guessing which company.

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3b46420a4b691205d4848ef7d77e1c4bb48a90.jpeg

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Duffshot38
3 months ago

Dont forget to factor in the after tax return with these strategies too - its often overlooked and can have a big impact on your performance if you get "too active"

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Bear77
3 months ago

So, not EVS?

I'm guessing they must be...

  • Phenomenal,
  • Marvelous, &
  • Exceptional...


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Rick
3 months ago

@Bear77, the graphs are for Pro Medicus (PME), which I don’t hold. There won’t be too many businesses to match this for performance.

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Bear77
3 months ago

I know they were @Rick hence the first letters of those three words = P, M & E. I hold them here, but not in any real money portfolios. Sold way too early.

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Rick
3 months ago

Good one @Bear77 ! I didn’t pick that up!

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actionman
3 months ago

Thanks @JPPicard. Excellent podcast. Of course it is all based on being able to value a company accurately to know when to trim or accumulate. That's the hard part.

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Seymourbutts
12 months ago

Competitor?


I recently received a marketing/promotional email with an attached Infographic and Brochure from Acoem (https://www.acoem.com/en/). I was unaware of this company prior to receiving the email from their 'Technical Sales' person.

Below is an extract from their Infographic on the Environmental Monitoring they provide for mine sites - I imagine this have alternative uses and applications, maybe this was tailored for the end viewer/user, such as myself? Unsure.

6b69377ebf60b6c18ef20820caef424c48b992.png

They come with NATA Accreditation which is certainly a tick in the right direction. For further information I would suggest having a look at their website linked above. Appears to be a French company - and of decent size (and scale) - "our 900+ employees work across 27 offices, 6 manufacturing facilities and 4 R&D centres in 11 countries to provide trusted, holistic data solutions for customers worldwide".

41935ff2d1dd6f56e7589f547994826e1059c3.png

I haven't done a full review yet but found it interesting after previously being contacted by a sales rep from Envirosuite here.

As a note, we don't use either Envirosuite or Acoem products or services on site currently.

Currently hold EVS on SM and IRL.

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JPPicard
one year ago

Btw, does anyone know how Envirosuite got their relief from 4Cs? Last I check they were still burning cash.

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Mujo
one year ago

They filed one on 30 jan? or are you saying they’ve just been granted relief?

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Bear77
one year ago

Yep, the short answer @JPPicard is that non-profitable companies usually only have to provide App 4Cs for the first 2 years after they list (or have a significant change in the nature of their business) plus any additional period that the ASX requires them to, but not forever. As Pacific Environment Limited (PEL), their last 4C was for the December 2013 quarter and was lodged on 28 January 2014. PEL-FY14-Q2-4C-28Jan2014.pdf

They have not been required to lodge one since, according to a quick scan of their announcements that I just did.

Appendix 4C Quarterly Cashflow Reports are only required for companies that fall into the following 3 categories (under Listing Rules 4.7B and 4.7C):

  1. They are NOT miners, mining exploration, oil and gas producers, or oil and gas exploration companies (who all have to lodge Appendix 5B or other quarterly reports), and they are also not an investment entity (such as LICs or other investment funds, see note 8 below), and the company WAS admitted to the official list (of companies trading on the exchange) under the "commitments" test in Listing Rule 1.3.2(b) - see note 9 below, or;
  2. Same thing (not one of those three types of companies listed above who have different reporting requirements), and the company has undergone a significant change in the nature and scale of its activities, and therefore must re-comply with the "commitments" test because the ASX has required the company to re-comply with the admissions requirement in Chapters 1 and 2 of the Listing Rules, or;
  3. The ASX has asked the company to complete Appendix 4Cs.


Source: https://www.asx.com.au/documents/rules/gn23_appendix_4c.pdf

In categories 1 and 2 above, the requirement is usually for 8 quarters, so 2 years, unless the ASX extends that period, in which case the company falls in category 3 above and the ASX will tell the company when they no longer have to lodge Quarterly Reports. However, the requirement is generally for the first 2 years that the company is listed for unless the ASX extend that period.

The purpose of the "commitments" test (which underpins the requirements to lodge the Appendix 4C for the first two years that a non-profitable company is listed on the ASX) is to prevent entities that are essentially "cash boxes" from listing on the ASX, as explained in note 9 below (taken from page 3 of the document linked to above).

Here's the actual ASX wording, with notes below:

e48175ea378294bd622518ec5a54c03f91ebca.png

Notes:

c83767eed040aaea5751301f7ba60088c7d32b.png

Source: https://www.asx.com.au/documents/rules/gn23_appendix_4c.pdf

Hope that helps.

P.S. Additional: It is my understanding that if a company goes from being profitable or operating cashflow positive - as PEL - later renamed Envirosuite [EVS] - were in 2013 - they were operating cashflow positive at that point when the ASX no longer required them to continue to lodge 4Cs - back to being unprofitable or cashflow negative, it does not automatically trigger the need for App 4Cs to be lodged again, although the ASX can (at their discretion) require such companies to begin lodging 4Cs again if they want them to, but the ASX would need to make that request to the company - it is not an automatic requirement.

If the thrust of the rule was to prevent "cashbox" situations, as explained in that guidance note (#23), and the company has significant sales and is obviously operating as a company that is trying to move towards profitability at some point, rather than just sitting on a pile of cash and doing bugger all, then the ASX would be unlikely to request 4Cs in that scenario (IMO).

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Bear77
one year ago

Are you sure @Mujo ? - I can't see one in their list of announcements. Are you looking at EVS or someone else? EVS lodged an announcement titled "Investor Briefing Notification Q2 Sales Update" on 31-Jan-2023, and the actual document is dated 1st Feb 2023, but they didn't lodge anything on the 30th.

That announcement on the 31st (see below) was not an Appendix 4C.

Q2-Sales-Update---Record-Qtr-for-EVS-Aviation.PDF

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Mujo
one year ago

Sorry @Bear77 no you are correct, i was looking at the wrong company!

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JPPicard
one year ago

Excellent answer @Bear77 ; short masterclass on ASX rules.

I had never looked into the rule before and simply assumed that companies would be required to lodge them from listing until 1 year of sustained cashflow positivity, and that they would be required to publish them again if they fell back into the red. Both of these assumptions now appear incorrect based on your research; glad for your help here!

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Bear77
one year ago

You could be generally right about the 1 year of sustained cashflow positivity @JPPicard - in terms of when the ASX would likely say "You don't need to lodge 4Cs any more", although PEL had I think 3 quarters out of the 4 quarters in CY2013 in which they were operating cashflow positive, not 4 in a row, but they were cashflow positive for CY2013 overall, however there does not seem to be any automatic requirement to recommence lodgement of 4Cs except if the ASX request that the company do so.

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Rocket6
one year ago

@mikebrisy I tuned into the meeting too. Yes, I too get a feeling that Jason is perhaps being a little too optimistic, but I want to give him benefit of the doubt heading into H2. As I mentioned though, it is really important we see some sales traction after the comments made in the report.

I wanted to touch on this statement: 'they remain on track towards profitability this year.'

I didnt want to repeat that statement here because I was convinced I must have misheard/misinterpreted. Now that we have both seemingly appeared to hear the same thing, I have NO idea how they suggest they will hit profitability this year. Am I missing something? Are they talking about EBITDA positive?

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mikebrisy
one year ago

@Rocket6 Yes, I expect it will be an underlying or adjusted EBITDA. Share your concern.

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Rocket6
one year ago

No concern as such, just keen to flesh out what I initially considered an unrealistic target. But when we start talking 'underlying' and 'adjusted', heck -- you can get there however you want to! I don't want to be too negative (yet), but I want to say on the record that it will be an orange flag if we don't see an improvement to sales moving into H2, particularly after management's recent commentary.

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