If you take a look at Motley Fool's CAPS community, Perficient (Nasdaq: PRFT) shares are quite popular and sport a five-star rating -- even as the stock has slipped over the past couple months. But after yesterday's Q3 report, the price got a nice 10% pop and the company's management continues to be upbeat. In Q3, revenue grew 20% to $53.1 million and profits jumped 60% to $4.5 million, or $0.15 per share.
Perficient helps its customers design portals, e-commerce systems, and mobile applications on platforms from players like Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), IBM, and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT). The company focuses on the Global 2000, which includes some of the largest companies in the world, such as Duke Energy and Nestle.
As Perficient grows its business, the operating leverage has continued to improve, with EBITDA margins at a healthy 20%. So with more cash flows, the company can crank up acquisitions.
In September, Perficient agreed to shell out $20 million for BoldTech Systems, which provides high-end consulting services for major customers like AT&T (NYSE: T), Disney, and Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO). The deal will add $20 million in annual revenue as well as add to cash earnings. BoldTech also has a global development center in China, which should allow for a wage advantage.
On the conference call, Perficient management was upbeat about its M&A strategy. With the crumbling of private equity, there hasn't been much competition for deals, and the valuations are looking attractive, with deals at lower EBITDA multiples. Keep in mind that Perficient trades at about 19 times EBITDA, so there is lots of opportunity to leverage earnings from M&A deals.
Going into Q4, management sees more momentum, giving guidance of $56.3 million to $62.1 million on revenue. What's more, the long-term prospects look promising if the company should continue to buy up rivals. In light of all this, I can certainly see why the stock has won the undivided attention of some CAPS investors.
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