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- The invariable impacts of COVID-19 have put a stop to Altium’s (ALU) consecutive revenue growth during the first half of FY21
- Revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation slumped four per cent and 15 per cent, respectively, over the period, which Altium attributes to challenging economic conditions
- In terms of its services and products, Altium 365 monthly users grew by 83 per cent since July, while Octopart revenue grew by 19 per cent
- As a result of the first half, the ASX-lister anticipates full-year guidance to be skewed towards the lower end of the scale but maintains its overarching revenue and subscriber targets for 2025
- Altium shares are off 3.29 per cent on the back of the news, trading at $29.65 each
The invariable impacts of COVID-19 have put a stop to Altium’s (ALU) consecutive revenue growth during the first half of FY21.
The electronic design software company was hit by a four per cent decline in first half revenue, dropping to US$89.6 million (approximately A$115.5 million) from US$92.9 million (roughly A$119.7 million) the prior corresponding period.
Altium attributes this predominantly to challenging economic conditions arising from the pandemic over the period and its organisation transition to cloud-based systems.
More specifically, ALU cites challenging license compliance sales at the lower end of the market and lengthened deal cycle times.
Consequentially, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation slumped 15 per cent on the previous period, from US$31.8 million (roughly A$41 million) to US$27 million (about A$34.7 million).
Profits before and after tax also suffered, dropping 23 per cent and 12 per cent on the prior corresponding period, respectively.
“Altium experienced a challenging first half with extreme COVID conditions in the US and Europe and our pivot to the cloud involving a number of significant organizational changes,” Altium’s Chief Executive Aram Mirkazemi explained.
The ASX-lister also cut its unfranked interim dividend from 20 cents per share to 19 cents per share.
In terms of its services and products, Altium 365 clocked 9300 active monthly users and 4400 monthly active accounts, representing an 83 per cent and 69 per cent increase respectively since July.
Octopart revenue grew by 19 per cent, while Nexus revenue dropped off by 14 per cent.
Looking ahead, Altium anticipates lingering macroeconomic uncertainty to drive full-year guidance to the lower end of the US$190 million (about A$244.6 million) to US$195 million range (roughly A$251 million).
Despite this, the ASX-lister says it remains committed to achieving its targets of US$500 million (about A$643.7 million) in revenue and 100,000 subscribers by 2025.
Altium shares are off 3.29 per cent on the back of the news, trading at $29.65 each at 12:49 pm AEDT.
