Just to clarify why I am on the fence regarding XRO - does Rod Drury's media presence count as talking up the stock?
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XRO:
Has a fleet of minis with personalised plates
Has a flash wellington office
Pretty sure it has ping pong tables though doesn't have a slide to get between floors like Trademe has
Rod lives in the Hawkes bay and we all know how expensive regional airfares are in NZ
Rod does a lot of talk - A lot.
I haven't seen Rod 'talking up the stock' - I like his enthusiasm and energy and he does make attempts to get people (not just investors) to understand what this NZ company does have the potential to do. There is an acute lack of understanding about IT/cloud/SAAS models here in NZ/Aust, imho. Anyway, with this media exposure comes hairy questions and so far he has come through ... and the story has not changed (for me anyway). Not saying Xero is already 'there' - just that it has a very exciting opportunity at something special. Albeit, Xero and other IT stocks still come with too much risk for many investors.
He may not 'talk up the stock' as that would cause disclosure issues no doubt, but he does criticise the opposition at every turn.
To date Rod has executed the plan as set out (once they changed the plan from going for break-even to a growth model) so he should be commended for that.
If the fleet of minis are to promote the company then I think this is good, however, if the CEO has a 'BigRod' plate - that is not such a good sign.
Flash offices and ping pong tables go hand in hand. It is about attracting quality staff. I do not agree with the article in that regard. Baby-boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers all have different motivators and the start-ups are competing with likes of Google to attract this talent.
There was article in the nbr today, could someone please outline what it said? The title is "Woodward bumps Xero target price" It could be the reason why Xero went up 50 cents today.
They reiterate buy reco, with $16 target in 12 months
They expect XRO to triple customers this year
NBR also remind readers that it was Woodwards who brought MAD to the market as an IPO:t_up:
A P/E of 100 isn't too bad. Things were worse in 1999.
Oh......wait.