Forum Topics AD8 AD8 Market Sentiment

Pinned straw:

Added 4 months ago

To release a downgrade on the worst trading day / highest volatility since Covid shows the same mgmt. naivety as selling down into a Cap Raise.

This is potentially a downside of having a technical founder CEO rather than a professional / slick management. I would still take the owner operator (missionary) over ‘professional’ (mercenary) approach any day.

Other factors like the large cap raise at $13, still unutilised, CFO resignation, Directors selling above $20, relatively low insider ownership, would have put Audinate on a negative watch.

Broker reports saying that they are effectively a hardware maker (not true) and the vast bulk of their sales are non-recurring (not true) and 1 year price targets are closer to $13 would have helped prime the doors for a stampede.

This downgrade to guidance for FY25 was significant but also given the brevity of the release likely raises concerns about some of these prior actions – especially CFO resignation, director selling, raising at $13, etc.

The jaded trader set and the ‘I told you so’ brigade are negative on this stock and currently sounding smart and wisely cautious. They are playing a much shorter timeframe game to me but will likely be the marginal buyers / sellers / shorters so could push the price around quite a lot in the short term. 2.5% shorted last time I checked.

So I would be surprised if the share price rebounded any time soon in any meaningful way but that’s just my best guess.

Buffett talks about wanting to buy a great business with short term problems – his ideal situation is when they are on the operating table. That’s what this feels like to me but only time will tell.

edgescape
Added 3 months ago

I know ESG means nothing here but I thought I'd still pull out the scores given this straw mentioned the CEO selling before the capital raise

From Factset, ESG score is average to poor overall despite being a technology company and also having Deloitte as auditor (who I thought would bring some sort of experience regarding oversight). But it has started gradually going up according to Truvalue in the short term performance.

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But surprisingly, governance is high according to ISS with a score of 2. That is even given the CEO selling before the capital raise. Still the ESG corporate rating is a D which means the E and S factors are poor..

You can also go to Morningstar here which is free,

https://www.sustainalytics.com/esg-rating/audinate-group-ltd/2005260825

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