OpenText is a winner, Kim Bolton says

Canadian tech stocks have been doing well in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and that includes OpenText (OpenText Stock Quote, Chart, News TSX:OTEX), which investors should consider buying on the dip — if one ever comes around, says portfolio manager Kim Bolton.

“This has been very much one of the darlings that we've been very, very patient trying to get into, but it always keeps going up,” says Bolton, president and portfolio manager of Black Swan Dexteritas, who appeared on BNN Bloomberg last Wednesday.

“OpenText is Canada's leader when it comes to enterprise information management, and it offers its customers great economies of scale,” says Bolton. “It has so many multiple growth drivers in the cloud and you can see how this drives their revenue and it actually drives the stock higher.”

OpenText is now positive for 2020, having climbed out of the hole created when the market pulled back in February and March and with the stock now sitting at plus 2.3 per cent for the year. That goes on top of its dividend yield, a bit of a rarity in the tech sector, which currently stands at 1.6 per cent.

OpenText finished calendar 2019 up 29 per cent on the back of strong top line growth driven by its Cloud Services and Subscriptions revenues. In its most recent quarter, its Q3 announced in late April, Cloud Services and Subscriptions delivered $339.5 million in revenue compared to $238.6 million a year prior, an increase of 42.3 per cent. (All figures in US dollars.)

Another recent boost for the company came this past December with the major acquisition of Boston-based Carbonite, a data protection and endpoint security company, for $1.45 billion including cash and debt.

“Our leadership position in Information Management has never been stronger and with the addition of cyber resilience products from the Carbonite acquisition, our customers continue to trust OpenText as they adapt to a changing business climate defined by new ways to work,” said OpenText CEO Mark J. Barrenechea in an April press release.

Bolton said, “OpenText has had a CAGR of 10.35 per cent over the last five years. And I'll tell you, if we ever get a chance to actually buy into it I think we're going to use some options so that we can stick with this stock because it just never gets to our entry point.”

Ahead of OTEX’s fiscal fourth quarter due on August 6, the company’s Q3 saw total revenue for the period ended March 31, 2020, of $814.7 million, up 13.3 per cent from a year earlier, and adjusted EBITDA down 0.9 per cent to $259.5 million.

Management has said the company remains solid through the COVID-19 pandemic, with its product portfolio falling firmly in the “mission critical” category for its customers. OTEX finished its third quarter with $1.45 billion in cash, a 2.3x consolidated net leverage ratio and a new restructuring plan that will see the company reduce its workforce by five per cent and cut down by half its office real estate worldwide.

The company said the changes will results in annual savings of between $65 and $75 million.