
TSE:CSU
This summary was created by AI, based on 88 opinions in the last 12 months.
Constellation Software Inc. (CSU) has experienced significant volatility recently, notably due to fears over AI's impact on software companies and the retirement of its long-serving CEO, Mark Leonard. While some analysts express concerns regarding its future growth trajectory and the potential loss of pricing power, many experts believe the company remains fundamentally strong with a robust history of acquisition and capital deployment. The stock is perceived to be undervalued by several analysts, particularly as it trades at lower multiples compared to its historical values. Despite some bearish sentiment, there's a consensus among many that the fears regarding AI displacement may be overstated and could pave the way for the company to leverage AI in enhancing its software offerings. Overall, the prevailing view suggests that CSU presents a buying opportunity for long-term investors, though caution is advised due to technical indicators suggesting potential further downside in the short term.
This has done extremely well. The 5-year chart shows a big range, and right now he is just neutral. The stock is not hanging around its highs. He suspects there will be some sellers coming in. It might have good support at around $380-$400, but then you have resistance from $500 and up with a very, very slight bearish bias.
Who do you like in Canadian Tech? As a value investor, he may like a Canadian Tech company, but may not be able to buy it because of its valuation. Two that stand out are Constellation Software (CSU-T) and CGI Group (GIB.A-T), and CGI is probably selling closer to reasonable multiples. Both are extremely well-managed. He also likes that they are both much more software dependent, not mixing any hardware which can be so fickle in today’s technology market.
A well-run company and the CEO has created an unbelievable free cash flow machine, buying up software companies and having annuity revenues, and using the free cash to continue to buy more, etc. They now have a suite of thousands of companies and are on the hunt to buy more. This is on his radar screen, but he just can’t stomach buying it at this valuation.
This is a serial acquirer in the software space and have done fantastically well with that business model. It has had a great 10 year run. He is generally very cynical about serial acquirers, so didn’t go into this. Doesn’t feel he can know this name as well as he would like to, because it is hard to see what the true organic growth is when they are making acquisitions. He wouldn’t look at this at these levels.
The challenge is that the stock just keeps going up and it is very difficult to find an entry point. It is now down about 15% since January, and is at an entry point that many have waited for. Their core business is niche acquisition strategy, so they are acquiring small software companies. The average acquisition size is about $3 million, and they are focusing on a space that the bigger players are not interested in.
They do a lot of healthcare/government payroll sorts of things. They make organizations work more efficiently through software. This company is a huge acquirer. The founder still works at the company and has $500 million worth of stock. They don’t issue stock, the cash flow is great, balance sheet is really, really strong, they deliver on expectations, but they trade only in Canada and their earnings are in US$. They have had 11 days in a row where their earnings have gone up. Dividend yield of 1.06%.
He likes it. $400 model price, but they could do a lot of things to increase the model price, such as a stock split.