In my continuing research into companies like Online Resources (NASDAQ:ORCC) and Digital Insight (NASDAQ:DGIN), Corillian (NASDAQ:CORI), Sybase (NYSE:SY), and S1 (NASDAQ:SONE) -- the firms profiting from the online banking revolution -- one oddly familiar name keeps popping up: financial data processor Jack Henry & Associates (NASDAQ:JKHY).
Why does the name sound so familiar? And why did I take an immediate liking to this company, whose name I had never heard before beginning this project? Well, it just came to me: The name closely resembles that of my very favorite Johnny Cash ballad, John Henry.
Like the song says, John Henry was a steel-driving man. He drove spikes, digging holes for dynamite blasting back when the nation's railroads were being constructed in the mid-19th century. For his labors, he earned a wage of "a nickel a day for every inch" he could drive the spike. Fortunately for its shareholders, John Henry's modern day namesake, Jack Henry, is a much more profitable operation -- and one that's found a way to earn handsome profits without breaking a sweat.
The company just closed out its 2005 fiscal year and reported its earnings results yesterday. Over the past year, Jack Henry grew its revenues by 15% over its fiscal 2004 numbers. That's healthy growth in and of itself, but the story gets even better from there: Gross profits increased by 18%, profits per diluted share grew by 19%, and operating and net profits both leapt 21%.
Key to the firm's rising profitability over the past year has been powerful growth in its highest-margin segment, license revenue, which doubled the pace of overall revenue growth at 32%. Even though license revenue makes up just 15% of Jack Henry's overall sales, it has a disproportionate impact on overall profitability. This is because licensed revenue comes with a 94% gross margin and is roughly three times as profitable as the company's other two segments: hardware sales and services.
Like the Man in Black said, "You go, hammer swinger."
Kudos for its business performance aside, however, Jack Henry does pose one problem for Foolish investors: its valuation. With its clean balance sheet and limited amount of debt, Jack Henry is tailor-made for evaluating with a simple enterprise value-to-free cash flow ratio. With its enterprise value of $1.76 billion and $42.5 million in free cash flow, Jack Henry's EV/FCF ratio stands at 41.
Considering that analysts expect the company to grow at no more than 17% annually over the long term, that's too rich for this Fool -- but I'll bet Jack's pappy is proud that he's done so well.
Fool contributor Rich Smith owns shares of Corillian, but not of the other companies named above. The Fool has an ironclad disclosure policy.
