Cortex Business Solutions has a 94 per cent upside, Beacon Securities says

E-invoicing company Cortex Business Solutions (Cortex Stock Quote, Chart TSXV:CBX) is starting to see the benefits of its Powervision acquisition, says analyst Gabriel Leung of Beacon Securities, who on Friday upped his target price in response to the company’s recently released earnings.

Calgary-based Cortex Business Solutions reported its fiscal first quarter 2019 financials last week, producing revenue and EBITDA of $3.3 million and $643,000, respectively, with President and CEO Joel Leetzow pointing to the gains made through acquiring software company Powervision, a $7-million deal which closed this past September.

“With our first months now behind us after the Powervision acquisition, we are already starting to see the synergies that we had expected from combining the two companies,” said Leetzow, in a press release. “We have made two new sales of the complete Cortex platform since the acquisition and our pipeline for the combined solution is growing rapidly.”

The Q1 top and bottom lines came in slightly above Leung’s estimates, which were $3.1 million and $466,000, respectively. Drilling down, Leung highlighted the company’s recurring access and usage fees which were up 16 per cent year-over-year to $3.3 million, with 97 buyers in the network (down from 99 last quarter) and active suppliers at 9,386 (up from 9,160 last quarter.

“Overall, we think fiscal Q1 was a strong start to the Powervision integration both in terms of financials and new customer and pipeline signups,” says Leung, in an update to clients last week. “We are maintaining our Buy rating, but increasing our target price to $7.00 (was $6.50), which is based on 15x FY20e EV/EBITDA.”

Leung’s $7.00 target represented a 94 per cent projected return on investment as of publication date.