Today,we examine a Canadian tech stock that has established a strong niche in an expanding market. Mitel Networks develops products for business telephone systems and it is moving from an office installation system to the use of the cloud, which lets Mitel sell its products by subscription. This should produce a stronger stream of revenues and enhance Mitel’s prospects as a growth stock.
MITEL NETWORKS (Toronto symbol MNW; www.mitel.ca) develops and markets products centred on business telephone systems, including technology that integrates land lines and mobile phones. The company also offers call centre and videoconferencing products.
In the three months ended June 30, 2015, Mitel’s revenue rose slightly, to $292.3 million from $291.7 million a year earlier (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars).
Earnings per share fell 14.3%, to $0.18 from $0.21, as the stronger dollar lowered the value of the company’s international sales. However, the latest earnings matched the consensus estimate.
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Mitel is increasingly moving from selling programs that are installed at its customers’ offices to a cloud model, where it keeps its software on its own servers and sells it by subscription. That provides steadier recurring revenue.
The company added 235,500 cloud subscriptions in the latest quarter. It now has 1.6 million cloud users, up 76.1% from 915,095 a year ago.
Earlier this year, Mitel acquired Mavenir Systems for $560 million U.S.
This was an important move because Mitel’s current services are mainly over land-line phones. Mavenir will help it move into the market for voice-over long-term evolution, or VoLTE, a technology that repackages voice calls as data and transmits them over wireless networks. VoLTE is quickly becoming the standard for high-speed wireless communications.
Recommendation in Stock Pickers Digest: BUY