Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) released its 2018 financial results to the market today revealing a 34% increase in net profit.
Altium is one of the world’s largest electronic printed circuit board software companies.
Here are some of the highlights from its report, all figures are in US dollars unless stated:
- Revenue grew by 26% to $140.2 million
- EBITDA increased by 35% to $44.87 million (click here to learn what EBITDA means)
- Net profit went up by 34% to $37.5 million
- Total dividend per share increased by 17% to 27 Australian cents
According to Bloomberg, analysts were expecting Altium to report a profit of $37.4 million. A dividend of $0.22 was also expected. The result appears to have been slightly above analyst’s expectations, but the market won’t get to react until trading resumes tomorrow.
Altium’s products all grew revenue by double digits. For example, Altium Designer software licenses grew revenue by 23% to $51.3 million and subscriptions by 25% to $51.5 million and Search advertising revenue grew by 56% to $12 million.
A key focus of Altium has been expanding the EBITDA profit margin, which increased to 32% from 30% in the year before.
Operating cash flow grew by 35% to $37.5 million, which helped grow the cash on the balance sheet by 18% to $52.5 million.
Altium has expanded its client base to include businesses and organisations like Tesla, Audi, John Deere, Ford, Toyota, Mercedes Benz, Google, Apple, NASA, Space X, Boeing, Bosch, Microsoft, HP, Amazon, Disney, Fitbit and many more.
CEO Mr Aram Mirkazemi was pleased to comment, “After six years of consecutive growth and profitability, Altium has delivered its strongest ever performance for FY18.
Altium’s performance in FY18 places the company firmly on track to achieve its 2020 revenue target of US$200 million with strong margin expansion.”
The electronic PCB software company remains debt free and grew its free cash flow by almost 45% to $44.9 million.
One of the key things that Altium will be focusing on in the coming years is making its software more accessible by reducing the upfront cost of ownership to attract more subscribers. Altium is now targeting 100,000 active subscribers for Altium Designer before 2025. It had 37,917 at the end of FY18.
Altium said that it will continue to pursue partnership and acquisition opportunities, its partnership with Dassault Systèmes starting to bear fruit.
Outlook
Altium continues to aim for revenue of US$200 million with an EBITDA margin of 35% or better.
Mr Mirkazemi concluded: “From China to EMEA and the US, and from TASKING to Octopart, Altium’s FY18 performance has been an absolute stand-out.”
The share price has also grown strongly, it has risen by 153% in the past year.
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