ALU - ALTIUM LIMITED

[ShareCafe]

ALU

[kapricorn]

In reply to: influxweb on Tuesday 22/06/04 03:19pm

I accidently hit on this stock recently after trawling through the listings. It has fallen on hard times and has been on a downward spiral for some time. At 20c I think we've seen the bottom so I felt confident in putting in a buy order at 22c after it closed on Mon 22/11 at 24c. It didn't really surprise me that my order didn't activate. Perhaps I was a bit optimistic, however when it closed at 26c tonight I'm expecting it to drop back a little tomorrow but may have to up my order to 24c.

 

In any case I feel this stock is worth a punt. I feel the risk is that it's revenue is influenced by the price of the $AUD. If the $ rises the stock will go down and vice versa. Can anyone else proffer some insight into this stock. Am I right in thinking this way?

[the saint]

In reply to: kapricorn on Tuesday 23/11/04 09:45pm

Hi kapricorn, Nice report out today should see nice growth in the coming months. Chart looks strong and the book stronger; good asian growth.

[mme]

Anyone still holding this stock. Comments appreciated. http://www.sharescene.com/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[YChromozome]

In reply to: mme on Friday 27/10/06 08:36am

QUOTE

Anyone still holding this stock. Comments appreciated

 

I'm still very bullish about this stock, and in the recent weakness is considering topping up.

 

Altium's flagship product Altium Designer, originally known as Protel has gone though some significant changes over the years.

 

The company was known as Protel (ASX:PRI) when it first listed in 1999. The goal of listing was to raise capital to expand its product offering through the acquisition of additional technologies. At the time the company's product only did electronic Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Design. The common versions was Protel 98, 99 and 99SE.

 

In 2001 the company changed its name to Altium as the company tried to separate its name from its flagship product. Though acquisition it introduced a lot of new features and technologies into its products including support for FPGA and soft core processors, a growth area in the Electronics Industry. Currently I don't believe there is a product like Altium Designer which allows engineers to design both printed circuit boards, FPGA designs and embedded code so simply in the one package. Altium also introduced hardware which further assists engineers in meeting their goals.

 

This year marks the return to profitability. The company is now starting to reap the benefits of all these new technology developments and the results are shown in the last quarter results. Sale growth grew in the US by 34%, Europe by 10% and Asia-Pacific by 118%.

 

The Asia-Pacific growth was mainly due to China and this is where I believe the surprise growth will come - but not because China is a fast growing economy.

 

The Protel 98/99 product and even some of the early DXP products have always have a significant market share in China - just they never paid for it! Most of the copies were pirated. Altium has done two things, first they have improved copy protection greatly over the past couple of years and introduced activation. But China's engineers just keep using the older limited Protel 98/99 products that were easily cracked.

 

Now Altium has set up sales offices in China and are actively promoting the product though a "Seeing is believing" marketing strategy. They are showing Chinese engineers how they can be more productive using the new cutting edge tools with a great more features. And they have one foot in the door - as China's engineers have 'grown' up with Protel's cracked copies they want to stay with something they know and love, rather that switching to a competitor which requires further staff training.

 

The "Seeing is believing" marketing strategy has been so successful in China that they are now using it in their other geographical sales offices around the world.

 

 

On a side note, I have an oportunity to tour Altium's headquarters recently and liked what I saw. The place is like one happy family and where staff is happy, so is productivity. The best bit was the "canteen"/staff room staffed by a full time tea lady where meals are free to staff. Looks like an excellent company with high staff retention and great momentum behind them. The CEO is involved in actively involved the design of the new Nanoboard, and the CFO is answering customer questions on the companies on-lines forums. There is not many places where the CFO has a great understanding of the product.

 

 

I was also a shareholder of CiTech (ASX:CTL), an Australian SCADA (Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition) software developer. Both companies seem to track each other through the highs and lows of tech wreck and recovery. At the beginning of CiTech's growth spurt period late last year they were eye'd by Schneider Electric and a private equity firm only to be taken over after a bidding war early this year. Just hope ALU doesn't go that way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[YChromozome]

In reply to: YChromozome on Thursday 09/11/06 08:13pm

 

Seems to have shot up a bit today over the appointment of two non-executive board members?

 

Currently trading at 97cents up 11.5%. No bad for a stock that was on this day last year trading at 21.5cents.

 

Still believe the next quarterly figures should be good.

 

 

[YChromozome]

In reply to: YChromozome on Thursday 09/11/06 08:13pm

QUOTE

The Asia-Pacific growth was mainly due to China and this is where I believe the surprise growth will come - but not because China is a fast growing economy. The Protel 98/99 product and even some of the early DXP products have always have a significant market share in China - just they never paid for it!

 

SYDNEY, Australia ÃÆâ€â„¢ÃƒÆ’ƒâہ¡ÃƒÆ’‚¢ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢Ã¢Ã¢â€š¬Ã…¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’…¡Ãƒâہ¡ÃƒÆ’‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢Ã¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã‚¡ÃƒÆ’‚¬Ãƒâ€Â¦ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å“ December 28, 2006 ÃÆâ€â„¢ÃƒÆ’ƒâہ¡ÃƒÆ’‚¢ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢Ã¢Ã¢â€š¬Ã…¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’…¡Ãƒâہ¡ÃƒÆ’‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢Ã¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã‚¡ÃƒÆ’‚¬Ãƒâ€Â¦ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å“ Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), industry-leading developer of unified electronic product development solutions, under its continuous disclosure obligations, today advises that it anticipates the reported revenue for the half year to 31 December 2006 will be in the order of 20%-25% greater than the reported revenue for the previous corresponding period, as announced on January 10, 2006.

[Carsha]

In reply to: YChromozome on Thursday 28/12/06 10:04am

Hello Y

 

I see in one of your previous posts you managed to get a guided tour of Altium headquarters.

How did this oportunity come about if you don't mind me asking ? http://www.sharescene.com/html/emoticons/smile.gif

 

CS

[YChromozome]

QUOTE (Carsha @ Thursday 28/12/06 11:13am)

QUOTE

How did this oportunity come about if you don't mind me asking ?

 

It was during one of their training courses. I work in the industry and use their software products. I was just surprised how much of a positive atmosphere it was and this has to help with innovation, motivation and staff retention. Now if only my employer was like this . . .

 

 

[philr]

Do any of you guys know whats going on with this company. Should this have been released on ASX or am I missing something.

 

Altium link