Edison Equity Research & Stock Reports

Solid State

Solid State has announced the acquisition of Pacer Technologies, a value-added distributor of opto-electronic components and displays, for c £3.7m cash. Although the transaction is earnings enhancing, triggering a 4.0% uplift in the FY20 consensus EPS, the share price has not moved materially in response to the news and we believe the shares continue to trade at a significant discount to peers.

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The acquisition of I-New transforms Cyan’s scale and growth prospects still further. Recent interim results highlighted a business on track to exceed FY18 pro forma guidance of €20m and expand EBITDA margins significantly. With a largely recurring revenue base, orders with an annualised contract value (ACV) of over €6m already signed and a qualified pipeline of €100m in ACV, the company also appears well positioned to deliver FY19 revenue guidance of €35m (implying 75% y-o-y organic pro forma revenue growth).

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Evolva Holding

Evolva’s Q3 trading statement is mixed, but overall we believe it contains more positive than negative news. The announcement that Cargill and DSM are to form a new joint venture to produce fermentation-based stevia under the EverSweet brand is not a threat to Evolva’s position and indeed could potentially accelerate growth of the market that is still in its infancy. We note that revenue guidance is somewhat less bullish than at the H1 results and we therefore trim our forecasts slightly. We also update our forecasts for FX and overall our fair value remains unchanged at CHF0.58

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Cohort

The positive order intake news continues for Cohort. It has announced a further £3.2m contract for MASS to provide business analysis support to the UK’s MOD. In addition, the Portuguese subsidiary EID has won export contracts worth €11m for vehicle intercom systems for two existing customers. The EID contracts include successful acquisition of one of the five potential order opportunities previously indicated in the AGM update. Cohort continues to see improving overall group order inflow, which underpins the outlook for the businesses through FY19 as well as in the medium term. The shares have been performing well in a challenging stock market, and the current FY20e P/E of just 12.3x remains undemanding in our view.

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TXT e-solutions

Strong organic revenue growth in Q318 combined with the recent Cheleo acquisition resulted in revenue growth of 18.6% y-o-y, a normalised EBITDA margin of 10.0% (+80bp y-o-y) and a normalised EBIT margin of 5.8% (down 240bp due to higher depreciation from the capitalisation of leases). The company has started deploying the proceeds of the TXT Retail disposal, with the first two deals adding software solutions to the services-led Banking and Finance business. We expect the company to make further accretive acquisitions across both businesses.

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PDL BIOPHARMA

PDL reported Q318 revenues of $67.9m, up 8.2% compared to Q317 and up 45.8% sequentially, with that growth mainly due to an increase in the fair value of the Assertio (formerly Depomed) royalty rights. Noden Product revenue of $17.8m was up 17.9% compared to Q317 but was down 31.2% sequentially, mainly due to the bulk purchasing by distribution partner Orphan Pacific for the Japanese market launch in Q218. Importantly, PDL recently announced a $100m stock repurchase program which at current prices would buy back approximately 25% of the common shares outstanding.

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