Proact: Another beat and continued buybacks - ABG

- Q2: Gross margin lead the way to a 9% adj. EBITA beat vs cons
- Positive comments on demand across all regions
- Buybacks to continue, estimates up 2-4% and share to outperform

Q2 details
Sales SEK 1272m (-2% vs ABG 1,304m, -1% vs cons 1,291m). Adj. EBITA 97m (6% vs ABG 91m, 9% vs cons 89m), Adj. EBITA margin 7.6% (ABG 7.0%, cons 6.9%). Organic sales growth 6% (vs ABG 7%), of which system sales grew 8% (ABG 8%) and services 3% (ABG 6%). Solid OCF at SEK 130m (129m in Q2’23).

Positive demand comments
Cost reduction program bearing fruit, the market has turned more positive, and gross margins drove the earnings beat. Proact concluded on continued buybacks for Q3 as well. Positive demand comments from cloud solutions, cybersecurity and AI, across most end markets, and ongoing buybacks support EPS growth. Cloud orders also grew 16% y-o-y, which is encouraging. Reiterate targets of 10% annual growth and 8% margin, above consensus.

Estimates and share up slightly
We expect consensus to do positive revisions of 2-4% on the back of the better-than-expected gross margin, and share to slightly outperform today where valuation remains supportive (10.1x ‘24e EV/EBITA). Conf call CET 13.30.

Länk till analysen i sin helhet: https://cr.abgsc.com/foretag/proact/Equity-research/2024/7/proact---another-beat-and-continued-buybacks/