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BBTV named “Top Pick” by StoneCastle’s Campbell

BBTV

BBTVThe stock arrived last fall with a lot of promise but so far BBTV (BBTV Stock Quote, Chart, News, Analysts, Financials TSX:BBTV) hasn’t delivered for investors. But investors would be missing out if they skipped over this name, says portfolio manager Bruce Campbell, who thinks BBTV has a lot of potential in the media tech space.

“This really flies under the radar,” says Campbell, president of StoneCastle Investment Management, who spoke on BNN Bloomberg on Thursday. “What they do is they help influencers with video adoption online, and that can be anyone from the NFL to someone who’s streaming on YouTube of them playing Fortnite. BBTV helps them get more viewers, which means obviously more revenue.”

“The NBA is was one of their clients right now and they continue to ramp up,” he said. “They’ve been growing at about 60 per cent per year on the top line, and they’re adjusted EBITDA-positive as well.”

Founded in 2005 as BroadbandTV, BBTV uses audio and video recognition to allow companies and brands to monetize their online content, with its end-to-end content management services and multi-channel network growing by leaps and bounds over the years.

BBTV hit 473 billion annual views last year and in now number one across all media companies in terms of total monthly watch-time, announcing in January 51.8 billion minutes per month, which puts it well ahead of VEVO at 29.5 billion, WarnerMedia at 24.8 billion and Disney at 24.2 billion. Recently, BBTV said its stable of retained influencers and content creators generated 204 million in total monthly views.

BBTV had its IPO this past October, where the company’s share offering at $16.00 brought gross proceeds of $172.4 million, which the company used to buy out BroadbandTV shareholder RTL and retake full control of the business.

From that start, however, BBTV’s share price has been underwater and currently trades in the $10-$11 range, which could make for a buying opportunity, says Campbell, who thinks its trajectory could be similar to another fairly recent tech IPO, Lightspeed POS (Lightspeed POS Stock Quote, Chart, News, Analysts, Financials TSX:LSPD), whose share price has more than tripled over its two years as a public company.

“BBTV just went public last year, and we really like it. We sort of equate it to what can happen with Lightspeed,” Campbell said.

“If you want to see what this stock could potentially be worth, in their investor presentation BBTV has a comparable page, and you compare them to a lot of the companies that are out there that trade in their space,” Campbell said. “They think that they could be somewhere in the $47-$50 range based on what some of their peers are doing.”

“Check them out and do your due diligence, but it’s one that we like,” Campbell said.

Earlier this month, BBTV reported its fourth quarter and full year 2020 financial results, which featured revenue up 40 per cent year-over-year to $150.8 million and adjusted EBITDA of $1.0 million compared to $0.7 million a year earlier. For the 2020 year, the company posted revenue of $459.0 million, up 23 per cent from the previous year, with an overall EBITDA loss of $2.6 million compared to a gain of $1.0 million in 2019.

“Despite the market disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic earlier in the year, we were able to expand views on our platform and improve our [revenue per thousand vieews],” said CEO and Chairperson Shahrzad Rafati in a March 4 press release.

“Following the initial industry-wide slowdown caused by the pandemic, BBTV’s growth trajectories accelerated well through the year,” Rafati said. “It is a testament to the strength of our platform to monetize content for influencers, and the dedication and skills of our team to deliver 40-per-cent revenue growth this quarter. We exceeded our expectations on all of our core KPIs this quarter including growth in revenue, views, and revenue per thousand views.”

Earlier this year, BBTV renewed its deal with the NBA, expanding the joint commercial partnership called NBA Playmakers which will include BBTV’s content management Plus Solutions including Direct Ad Sales. The company also announced in January an expansion of its content management services to social media platforms Instagram and TikTok, giving creators wider control over their content.

Commenting on BBTV’s fourth quarter, Scotiabank analyst said the results were slightly ahead of expectations, with the company’s growth strategy on track to deliver higher gross margin as well as valuation. Fan noted that BBTV aims to double its sales reps by the end of the second quarter as the company invests in opex to grow the business.

“After declining through 2020, gross margin should now stabilize as penetration pricing strategy is mostly behind BBTV,” Fan said in a March 5 report.

Fan maintained his “Sector Outperform” rating for BBTV with a 12-month target price of $19.00, which at the time of publication represented a projected return of 81 per cent.

Disclosure: Nick Waddell is a shareholder of BBTV and the company is an annual sponsor of Cantech Letter.

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About The Author /

Cantech Letter founder and editor Nick Waddell has lived in five Canadian provinces and is proud of his country's often overlooked contributions to the world of science and technology. Waddell takes a regular shift on the Canadian media circuit, making appearances on CTV, CBC and BNN, and contributing to publications such as Canadian Business and Business Insider.
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