This company is a genuine enigma.
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Paying a dividend is tantamount to admitting defeat of their growth ambitions. The conundrum is that they do have a very large cash balance (albeit earning significantly more interest than a year ago), but little or no signals as to what they're going to do with it.
The share buy back was a token gesture to shareholders, it really meant very little given the number shares on issue. But at least it indicates that that the Board are conscious of shareholder dissatisfaction and doing something, albeit what seems a token gesture.
This is a sign of a very lazy balance sheet, a massive cash hoard, no debt, chasing growth through expanded marketing funded by cash flows. There is no doubt in my mind that the current PE (and share price) is already anticipating growth in new markets, but we have little evidence yet that is working.
They seem a bit confused about owning the whole value chain, versus their legacy of being pure marketing and a distribution/sales channel. It seems though, that they're leaning towards the value chain, owning manufacturing, supply, distribution, sales channels.
But this transition is very difficult for investors to value while they talk like a marketing company but behave like an end to end supply chain. One is aggressive going after market share, but the other is conservative building capability. Shareholders are probably a bit confused, understandably so as ATM seem confused also about what their future story really is.
When they sort out their new identity and communicate that is with evidence that it is working, I think this will be priced at significantly more than is presently. Until then, the market will look at the PE and other metrics and say, yeah, lazy balance sheet and no clear guidance on other markets, so price is what it is.
Meanwhile, the big holders, instos and the like, will game the SP as they have done for a few years now.