Stock price when the opinion was issued
At the end of the day, being a manufacturer is quite tough. Plus, they're in Canada. Significant amount of debt. Counting on smaller levels of government making orders, but there's not a lot of $$ to go around. These buses are a big capital expenditure, and it's hard to justify that in a budget. No dividend.
Instead look for a company that produces component parts at low cost, but very important to the vehicle. That component would have an element of pricing power.
Struggled over the years. Good exposure to EVs. Problem is lots of leverage. As well, a bus can't be shipped if it's missing even 1 component; it has to wait. Exposed to tariffs, as it relies on US for some of those parts.
Management's done well refinancing debt and working through problems. If problems can be resolved, could have very high performance over next few years.
We have been concerned on the company's execution, small size, high debt and economic vulnerability. It had to restructure its debt not that long ago. But the Q4 was strong, and its supply chain issue (seats) looks to be resolved. It also says tariffs should be 'manageable'. Expectations going into the quarter were very low so there was a big sigh of relief on this news. Guidance was largely expected to be cut sharply, and it was not. After several years of losses, it is expected to show a nice profit in 2025, and good profit growth in 2026. Debt has been reduced in the past three years, but the other concerns still exist. The stock had a big move but remains down on the year. It is cheap at 13X earnings. Still, it is hard for us to get excited here, just because things 'are not as bad' as feared. We still think it may have a rough time in the type of market backdrop we have this year.
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