OTC Markets (OTCM) is an American Financial market providing price and liquidity information for Over-The-Counter securities. The company was founded in 1913 as the National Quotation Bureau since the company has changed many names. The company operates in the Financial Services space.
Business Segments
The company primarily provides 3 services:
OTCQX
OTCQX is the trading platform that connects clients to broker-dealers, providing liquidity and execution solutions.
OTCQB
OTCQB is the new reporting and market data compiling service. It grants access to various channels like Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, etc.
OTC Pink
This is the corporate services pack, which helps companies to better engage and inform investors.
OTCIQ
Apart from these primary services, OTCM provides a service to other businesses called OTCIQ. OTCIQ serves as an investor relation portal for the company to monitor security market activity and transmit information to investors.
Management
The top brass of OTCM is highly qualified and rich with experience. The CEO, president and director, Cromwell Coulson took over in 1997 when the private company was nothing more than a publisher of quotations. Coulson and his team have transformed OTC into a publicly-traded company, operating in 3 markets and seeing an annual trading volume of just under $200 billion.
CFO, Bea Ordonez, has over 20 years of experience in the financial services segment; she is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Jason Paltrowitz, Executive Vice president of Corporate Services, has served had held management positions in renowned companies like JP Morgan Chase and BNY Mellon.
The company’s management is more than qualified and has a great track record; OTCM has not received any warnings or penalties for non-compliance with rules and regulations in the past few years.
Market Statistics
- Simple day moving averages 50 days: 33.72
- Simple day moving averages 200 days: 32.1
- 52 week Range: 25.37 – 40
- Lifetime high: 39.95
Valuations and Competitors
- P/E – 25.32
- EPS- 1.36
- NOA- $13,972
- NOPAT- $16,148.19
- RNOA- 1.15
Business Model
OTCM lacks any direct competitors, and therefore enjoys an almost monopolistic operation. This makes it hard to determine the exact value of the business is the lack of comparison with other publicly traded stocks. News Corp-owned MarketWatch is a close rival of OTCM in the news and press segment. Both companies publish investor reports and function in the financial service space.
However, News Corp currently trading at 12.6 has been in losses for the past 2 years. Its share has shed nearly 22% over the past year and hence can’t be considered as a comparison. On the Exchange side of things, OTCM would be dealing with the likes of NYSE and Nasdaq. Both of these exchanges are considerably beyond OTCM’s reach as of now. Hence OTCM enjoys a niche that is unlikely to change in the near future. This while making OTCM harder to value could also be seen as the advantage of the business having a unique business model.
Key Financials
(all $ figures are in thousands)
- EBIT: $19,645 (up 7.32% from 18,304, in 2017)
- Net income from operations: $16,237 (up 28.8% from 12,599, in 2017)
- Cash and Cash Equivalents: $28,813 (up 21.66% from 23,683)
- Total Assets: $41,649 (up 14.6% from 36,317)
- Total liabilities: $25,240 (up 12% from 22,526)
- Net cash from operating activities: $22,590
- Net cash from financial activities: -$15,882
Operating expenses for the company have grown at a steady rate signalling a steady expansion in the business. Net income from operations grew by 19.2% from 2016 to 2017. In 2018 it’s up 28.8%. However, that’s not the whole story because of a one-off item in the company’s gross revenue. In 2018 there was a one-off licensing deal with Bloomberg LP contributing to 10% of gross revenue from licensing, amounting to $2,338.
The model of the company allows it to be heavy on cash almost at all times. Therefore the cash and cash equivalents are larger than all other assets combined. Both the Cash and cash equivalents and the Total assets have increased. The total asset growth is faster than the total liability growth and there has been a sharp spike in the other liabilities item.
This is causing the growth rate difference between the 2 to seem close however this will not repeat in the next quarter causing the difference highlighted more clearly. One of the most important items to notice in the balance sheet of the company is that its short and long term debt is 0. Being debt-free is always a big positive for any company.
The net cash from investments has been low, signalling that profits are simply being reinvested in the core business. However, the company has stated that it would make further acquisitions in FY 2019. The financing activity in question has been dividend payout and the operating profit has increased by nearly 37% from the previous year.
How to Value Stuff 