Subject: Smallcap Discoveries: Earnings update: adding Renoworks, trimming Hamilton Thorne

Smallcap Discoveries
Earnings update: adding Renoworks,
trimming Hamilton Thorne

We’ve got our first two earnings reports from the Q3 season: Renoworks Software and Hamilton Thorne. Both results were solid – but one we’re trimming and the other we’re adding. 
 
Renoworks Software (RW.V / ROWKF:PINK)
 
Renoworks delivered another quarter of record results.
 
Remember one quarter is a data point. Two quarters is a trend
 
And that trend points to profitability and 30+% year-over-year growth. And that’s just the core business – we still have potential revenue acceleration from the Geomni deal on tap. 
 
Bottom line: we’re buying RW on the results. 
 
RW, you’ll recall, makes visualization technology for the home remodeling industry. Their tech lets homeowners visually preview products on a digital rendering of their home. 
 
Q3 revenue was $1,084,000, up 44% year-over-year. Gross margins held strong at 75% and RW delivered $86,000 in operating profit. 
 
RW’s design service business continues to drive almost all the growth:
Design services is a relatively new business line but in just 6 quarters, the run-rate has grown 300% – from $75K in Q1 17 to ~$300K per quarter currently.
 
So now you’re paying under 3X revenues for a SaaS company growing 30+% y/y. Industry comparables trade at 7-8X revenues – and you could call RW undervalued just based on the core business. 
 
But remember last month RW signed a deal with Geomni, a subsidiary of $20B industry-giant Verisk (VRSK:NASDAQ). Geomni will partner with Renoworks to launch a service called FastTrack. FastTrack is an all-in-one solution that combines visualization, measurement, and estimation in one platform. 
 
It works like this:
They’ll offer these reports to clients for $150. Considering the average renovation spend is $60,000… this service is a great value. 
 
And for each report delivered, RW gets a cut. Since they are essentially just licensing their technology, partnership revenues will be almost pure margin. If this business gets traction, shares could quickly become really cheap
 
We like the risk-reward here. If thing go well, we could see millions flow to the bottom line from the Geomni partnership. And if they don’t go well… we’re paying a fair price for a growing software company.
 
We’re buyers up to $0.40.
 
Hamilton Thorne (HTL.V / HTLZF:PINK)  
 
Hamilton Thorne was also out with Q3 result last week. 
 
The results were decent – double-digit growth and profitability – but not quite enough to justify the valuation (in our opinion). We trimmed a bit on the news. 
 
HTL, you’ll recall, makes equipment and consumables for the in-vitro fertilization (IVF) industry. IVF is the miracle science that allows fertility-challenged couples have kids. 
 
Revenues were $6.8 million, up 13% over $6.1 million in Q3 last year. Gross margins dipped to 56% from 60% last year. Per management, sales of 3rd-party consumables in the Gynemed business drove margins slightly lower. 
 
Despite higher revenues, EBITDA was flat on lower margins and higher sales & marketing spend. 
 
These are decent results – but can they support the valuation? Let’s have a quick look:
At 20X+ EBITDA, we’d hope to see stronger growth and operating leverage – earnings growing faster than revenue. This quarter was the opposite. 
 
Now this is a quality business in a growing market. Industry leader Vitrolife trades for 16X revenues and 57X earnings. HTL deserves a premium valuation. 
 
They also have a warchest: $13 million in cash and a $3 million acquisition line of credit. That’s enough to do a deal even bigger than the transformative Gynemed acquisition last year. 
 
This management team has proven they can drive value through acquisitions – both large and small. 
 
Any valuation must consider potential value creation from future acquisitions. And our money is on David and the team. But as always, timing is anybody’s guess. 
 
So for now, we’re taking some profits to deploy in cheaper stocks (which they’re are starting to be lots of…). 
 
Disclosure: Paul, Brandon, and Keith are long 


86 East 23rd Ave, v5v 1w9, Vancouver, Canada
You may unsubscribe or change your contact details at any time.