Pinned straw:
@fcmaster26, I'm similiar to you - I was confused when they first announced the dividend policy last year when it was linked to EDITDA and not NPAT and am still confused about its purpose today. I also would think paying down debt would be a more sensible use of funds.
The only reason I can think of them implementing and then executing this policy while cashflow was negative, is that they are trying to communicate that they don't need the cash to fund the guided growth in revenue and margin expansions. To me that would be the time to bring on a dividend policy. It seems a bit of a trend for these small caps to pivot from a pure growth narrative to a growth + dividend narrative, I hope there is more to it than this though.
There have been a few head scratching moments this year with AVA for me - another was when they kept implying the aura x contracts they were winning had ongoing ARR component, but when you break it down the ARR is minimal and wont move the needle much.
The main redeeming feature for me is that it is very cheap if they can execute their plan and hit their guided revenue and margin expansion targets. H2 will be a key determinant of how likely this is and whether managements word is worth anything.