Photon Control will survive CEO’s departure, Echelon Wealth says

Photon Control (Photon Control Stock Quote, Chart TSX:PHO) announced today the departure of CEO Scott Edmonds, but the precision measurement tech company’s bench is deep enough to withstand the event, says analyst Amr Ezzat of Echelon Wealth Partners.

The company says in its press release that Director, President and Chief Executive Officer Edmonds has left to pursue other interests. Board Chair D. Neil McDonnell will step in as interim CEO while Ronan McGrath, Chair of the Audit Committee will now serve as Lead Independent Director.

“We are confident in our strong and well-established management team, coupled with ample new opportunities available to us to drive accelerated growth in our new product funnel and our ability to extend our technology into next-generation platforms,” said McDonnell. “While I look forward to leading the Company on an interim basis, we have initiated a search for a permanent CEO.”

Ezzat says that McDonnell is a recognized leader in the Canadian tech sector, with current appointments as Director of Symbility Software, Director of Espial and Chair of EDP Software.

“While we expect short-term weakness related to the departure, we feel that the company is in good hands and more importantly has enough bench strength both on the executive level and on the BoD to smoothly manage the transition,” says Ezzat in a client update on Monday. “Namely, John Rydstrom (SVP, Sales), Sal Akram (SVP, Engineering), Jeff Hebb (VP, Product Marketing), and Paul Moffatt (VP, Manufacturing Operations) all have extensive semicon and semicap experience. On the board level, Chuck Cargile and Michele Klein are industry veterans.”

On November 8, PHO reported its third quarter earnings which produced revenue of $10.1 million, a 16 per cent year-over-year decrease on an EBITDA of $3.0 million compared to $4.1 million a year earlier.

Ezzat is maintaining his “Buy” recommendation and $2.50 target price, representing a projected return of 134 per cent at the time of publication.