Forum Topics AVA AVA FY23 Results

Pinned straw:

Added 11 months ago

Ava's FY23 results seem good to me. The market disagrees :)

The highlights from their results update:

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If you look only at new revenue from the detect segment (an additional $3.8m in revenue), and ignore Illuminate which added $6.8m in revenue following the acquisition of GJD which was acquired in August last year, you still have a 20% lift in revenue. Indeed, around a third of orders for Detect came from North America, which saw a 20% lift in orders received over the year.

In fact, sales orders were up 36% if you ignore the GJD acquisition (up 71% in total). This is a great leading indicator for revenue growth.

Access was disappointing as the company awaits key product certification for the Cobalt 2 locks. Once received, the company expects that to open high quality distribution channels. We'll see.

Gross margins were essentially flat, which ain't bad given the shift in product mix (Illuminate products are lower margin), but the operating margin (ex restructure costs) was up 3% to 7%. A good demonstration of the operating leverage potential. They maintained their slide that highlights ambitions to growth the EBITDA margin to 14% next year, and up to 25% within 3 years. Also had the $100m sales target, which Mal talked about when we chatted with him recently. Very bold aspirations, but not unreasonable in my view.

At the bottom line there was a $1.1m net loss for the year due to higher depreciation and interest charges associated with GJD purchase. (compared to $0.7m in the prior year, ex discontinued operations).

Cash flow was negative for the full year as the business bulked up its inventory in response to supply chain issues. But op Cash flow was positive in the second half of the year. The company has $3m in net cash, but given receivables from recent orders, non-cash depreciation charges and working capital movements, I don't see a big risk of a capital raise.

At a current enterprise value of $46.8m, the EV/EBITDA ratio is 23.4x. That does not strike me as high given the pace of growth in revenue, sales order intake and the demonstrated scalability of the business.

I missed the briefing this morning, but will try and track down a recording and post here.

Full ASX presentation is here.

[HELD]

Silky84
11 months ago

I too thought this was a solid result for AVA. I know andrew recently mentioned on the podcast machine that doing your own analysis is key and ignore what the market does- this might then present buying opprtunities. In the past ive always been scared to buy when the market goes down on a result that i personally thought was decent- however i have taken the plunge and added today in RL. Not quite a back up the truck moment but progress none the less. In no small part thanks to the honest open lessons learnt from the strawman community! #strongertogether

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mikebrisy
11 months ago

@Strawman I agree - pretty decent result.

I've had $AVA on my watchlist since joining SM over two years ago, including following your commentaries and the meetings. It was on my shopping list for this results season if a) result was good and b) price stayed good. So both were achieved this morning, and I have taken my 1% RL position (although I don't think the entire order has gone through at my price limit, although I have moved the market a litte back up ;-), you're welcome. ).

Will also add to SM.

Disc: Held in RL (yay) and later on SM.

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Strawman
11 months ago

Given shares have basically moved sideways for almost 2 years @mikebrisy, your timing is likely better than mine!

Still, gradually then suddenly, right? :)

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fcmaster26
11 months ago

Way better than mine as well, my average cost is just below 40c.

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mikebrisy
11 months ago

I guess I've been waiting to see what the organic growth looks like post the divestment. I wonder if that also explains the SP side-ways tracking?

Apart from liking the tech, the management, the global addressible market, the current client list, and the history of shareholder returns, I also quite like the 3-year look ahead.

While I know there are some who argue against multi-year targets, these make explicit to me what management considers success to look like, and so I think we expect their messaging to be consistent with how they are tracking against that. That kind of clarity must also be motivating internally to the organisation.

To me this is preferrable to the CEOs who talk up their company, the prospects, how great the product is (with the thought that this positive demeanour is keeping investors onside) when the facts of delivery don't support this.

The three-year path to growth is targeting a revenue CAGR of 35%-52% (if I did my maths right), and if they achieve the targeted EBITDA Margin of 25%, that should see them well and truly blast through the inflection point and be generating cash. If they can deliver within that framework, then the shares are cheap today.

So happy to take a nibble today, and will add more if they stay on track. After all, who was it that said that the SP eventually follows the results. Oh yeah, it was @Strawman

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