11 Comments
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Bc's avatar

This was a great piece. Management must be studying EAT turn around

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Pitching Value's avatar

Nice write-up!

I don't know if I'm not comfortable enough with high debt, or if you're too comfortable. But a Net Debt/EBITDA of 6.4 is quite something. Looking at it from an Enterprise Value perspective EV/EBITDA is 8, which doesn't seem super cheap for a no to low-growth story.

But with proper capital allocation I can see the appeal of the 20% yield.

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Matt Newell's avatar

I agree, the debt makes me somewhat uncomfortable. But the stability of the underlying cash flows makes a net debt to EBITDA of 6.5 much less dangerous than it would be if they weren’t franchised.

It’s something I plan to monitor quite closely, and if the balance sheet starts moving in the wrong direction, I will sell out quite quickly.

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Pitching Value's avatar

Yeah that's fair.

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Bc's avatar

Oh I think they can, was just thinking through next steps

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Bc's avatar

You’ve convinced me to go long

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Matt Newell's avatar

Glad you found my writing helpful.

I should re-emphasise that this is not a high-conviction pick for me - there is definitely meaningful upside here, but with current management and a significant debt burden there are certainly risks. Just a note of caution!

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Bc's avatar

Can I ask a question what’s the end point for this stock? Re rate the pe?

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Matt Newell's avatar

Cash flow is yielding 20% and most of that can be put into buybacks and dividends so even with no re-rating, the shareholder yield should be in excess of 15%. Re-rating would just be the cherry on top.

The big question is whether earnings are gonna drop.

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Bc's avatar

Let’s assume no earning growth… then what? Stock drops further but the fcf payout vs dividend is still less than 50% so they can maintain for a year or two… then what?

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Matt Newell's avatar

Cash flow is roughly 2x (dividends + buybacks). Why do you think they won’t be able to continue paying dividends / buybacks?

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