“This performance for the first half reflects the combination of the effects of extreme COVID conditions,and Altium’s Netflix moment,which is a hard pivot to the cloud. The combination of COVID and the Netflix organisational changes has created an inflection point,which we have taken full advantage of to propel ourselves forward with a great optimism about the future,” he told an investor and analyst conference call on Monday.
Altium reported a four per cent decline in revenue to $US 89.6 million for the COVID-impacted December half year. Net profit for the period declined 14.6 per cent to $US 19.7 million and the company declared an interim dividend of 19c per share,down from 20c for the prior December half.
“This atypical decline reflects the economic slowdown caused by extreme COVID conditions in the US and Europe,and a challenging environment,post-COVID in China,for license compliance activities,” the company said.
Despite the poor numbers,long term Altium investor TMS Capital’s Ben Clark said the company should be able to overcome the short-term disruption to its books.
“I think underneath all of that,there’s a transformation of the business happening,which could actually see a much higher quality business emerge out of this,” he said.
Altium is already pointing to a pick up in business despite the ongoing COVID lockdowns in the US and Europe. It said revenue for the second quarter was stronger than first quarter revenue and that trend is continuing with early signs of growing momentum into the second half of fiscal 2021.