As mentioned in past portfolio commentaries, our holding in PTC was simply too small in terms of our portfolio management methodology. While we felt that the reaction of PTC to its most recent earnings release and guidance left the shares at a bargain valuation with an EV/S of just 8.7X, we wanted to eliminate an…
Upstart It is just getting started Upstart reported its results after the close on 8/10. To call the results a blow-out would not do justice to the results. I am not sure I have ever had the opportunity to follow and to own a name with quite such a rapid growth rate. But besides the…
Two of our portfolio names reported unusually strong earnings this week. In one case, Datadog, the upside was well rewarded with the shares reaching a new all-time high, up 19% for the week, and up about 32% since the start of the year. Tellingly, despite the strong appreciation last week, valuations have pretty much been…
As the first sentence of The Tale of Two Cities puts it: “It was the best of and the worst of times.” I am sure that many subscribers are unhappy-or more than that with the performance of Alteryx and Fastly. Presumably, some subscribers are pleased with the performance of Shift4 and Datadog. I try to…
Sunday evening, August 1st, Square announced it was buying Afterpay for a total consideration of around $30 billion. While the consideration might seem generous in terms of Afterpay’s valuation metrics, this is a merger with synergies written all over the place. Just for the record, Afterpay, as a relatively small Australian based company reports its…
Summary Pega reported a particularly strong Q2 last week. Growth in the quarter was reported at 43% and much of the upside dropped to earnings and cash flow. The company is seeing an acceleration in its long-term growth to the low 20% range. The company offers users technologies encompassing low-code, AI and robotic process automation…
Summary Teladoc reported the results for its Q2 after the market closed on 7/27. The results were a modest beat in terms of revenue and revenue guidance was increased modestly. Despite the headlines, operating results for the company expressed in terms of adjusted EBITDA were about 10% greater than prior guidance. The company announced it…
As many subscribers are aware, Medallia announced today that it was being bought by P/E firm, Thoma Brava at a $34 price per share. We were quite disappointed by that price -indeed the EV/S valuation implicit in that transaction is less than 8X, which is quite a bargain in our mind. Qualtrics, Medallia’s principal competitor,…
Summary Doximity is a recent hot IPO whose valuation has doubled since its IPO price. The company has developed a platform that counts more than 80% of US physicians as members. Its principal revenue source is selling sales and marketing “modules” to pharma companies, basically as part of a strategy of replacing historical sales processes…
We made a small change in the High Growth portfolio this morning. We chose to sell about 40% of our PTC holding at a small profit, and to buy a small position in Shift4 with the proceeds of that sale. We simply didn’t wish to increase our margin position. Currently our margin position is about…