Solid State — Significant consensus upgrades

Solid State (LSE: SOLI)

Last close As at 04/11/2024

GBP2.45

10.00 (4.26%)

Market capitalisation

GBP140m

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Research: Industrials

Solid State — Significant consensus upgrades

Solid State has announced that FY19 results will comfortably exceed previous market expectations on the back of continued strong demand in the Value Added Distribution division and the anticipated recovery in the Manufacturing division materialising. Consensus revenue estimates have risen by 3% and 5% for FY19 and FY20 respectively, and PBT estimates by 25% and 21%. While the share price has responded positively to the news, the shares continue to trade at a substantial discount to peers.

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Industrials

Solid State

Significant consensus upgrades

Technology

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30 January 2019

Price

365p

Market cap

£31m

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Share details

Code

SOLI

Listing

AIM

Shares in issue

8.5m

Business description

Solid State is a high value-add manufacturer and specialist design-in distributor to the electronics industry. It has expertise in industrial/ruggedised computers, electronic components, antennas, microwave systems, secure communications systems and battery power solutions.

Bull

Added-value design capability supports long-term relationships with customers and supports higher margins.

Military and aerospace expertise helped win VPT power conversion solutions franchise.

Pacer acquisition adds to value-added distribution portfolio with little overlap.

Bear

Delays affecting high value-added manufacturing projects for government-funded and major Infrastructure programmes are commonplace.

Revenue development dependent on OEM customers’ sales and marketing activity.

Interest on loan to fund Pacer transaction a drag on profits.

Analyst

Anne Margaret Crow

+44 (0)20 3077 5700

Solid State is a research client of Edison Investment Research Limited

Solid State has announced that FY19 results will comfortably exceed previous market expectations on the back of continued strong demand in the Value Added Distribution division and the anticipated recovery in the Manufacturing division materialising. Consensus revenue estimates have risen by 3% and 5% for FY19 and FY20 respectively, and PBT estimates by 25% and 21%. While the share price has responded positively to the news, the shares continue to trade at a substantial discount to peers.

Strong growth in value-added distribution continues

The strong (13% y-o-y) underlying growth in the Value Added Distribution division noted at the interims has continued into the second half. This is the result of investment two years ago in the sales team, combined with selective expansion of the product portfolio. For example, securing the exclusive VPT franchise, which was announced in April 2018, was key to winning a $3.2m contract for the provision of military-grade power supplies. The integration of Pacer Technologies, which was acquired in November 2018 and added optoelectronic components to the product offer, is progressing well.

H2 manufacturing recovery realised

At the interim stage, management predicted an improved manufacturing revenue performance in the second half based on a group order book at end September that was £29.6m (64% higher than September 2018), of which £18.1m was scheduled for delivery in H219. This improvement has materialised as the division has made the initial deliveries under the contracts totalling £4.3m for battery packs powering warehouse robots and resolved a technical challenge on a high value-added contract enabling product shipment. Importantly, the shift towards higher-margin work, which delivered a 70bp improvement in group gross margin at the interim stage, has been maintained.

Valuation: Trading at a discount to peers

We estimate that c £0.3m of FY19 profits growth is attributable to one-off effects such as FX. Stripping out these one-off effects demonstrates that the group is achieving meaningful year-on-year profits growth, with scope for FY20 upgrades potentially coming from leveraging the Pacer integration and manufacturing contracts. The share price has jumped by 13% on the consensus upgrades. Even so, the shares continue to trade on prospective consensus P/E multiples at a substantial discount to the mean for both our sample of specialist manufacturing companies (10.4x for Solid State vs 17.1x for peers) and our sample of value-added distributors (10.4x vs 14.9x).

Consensus estimates

Year
end

Revenue
(£m)

PBT*
(£m)

EPS*
(p)

DPS
(p)

P/E
(x)

Yield
(%)

03/17

40.0

3.1

31.4

12.0

11.6

3.3

03/18

46.3

3.0

30.9

12.0

11.8

3.3

03/19e

55.0

3.5

35.0

12.2

10.4

3.3

03/20e

68.0

3.5

34.6

12.4

10.5

3.4

Source: Company data, broker consensus. Note: *Adjusted for exceptionals, share-based payments and amortisation of acquisition intangibles.

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London +44 (0)20 3077 5700

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Frankfurt +49 (0)69 78 8076 960

Schumannstrasse 34b

60325 Frankfurt

Germany

London +44 (0)20 3077 5700

280 High Holborn

London, WC1V 7EE

United Kingdom

New York +1 646 653 7026

1,185 Avenue of the Americas

3rd Floor, New York, NY 10036

United States of America

Sydney +61 (0)2 8249 8342

Level 4, Office 1205

95 Pitt Street, Sydney

NSW 2000, Australia

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