Global smartphone sales continue to face headwinds
Sales declined for the quarter, as IMINT’s important Consumer segment is affected negatively by the downturn in the global smartphone market. Smartphone volumes declined 14 % y-o-y and 10 % q-o-q, and this is the fifth consecutive quarter of decline. Soft macroeconomic conditions, weak consumer demand, inflation, destocking, and cautious production techniques, collectively contributed to the underwhelming performance of the smartphone market in the first quarter of 2023.
Significant investments in the Professional segment
IMINT's ongoing investment in its new Professional segment is impacting profitability due to increased OPEX. Both salary costs and other external costs have increased more than we expected, with the Professional segment accounting for 42% of the total costs, while only representing a fraction of the total net sales. Despite these challenges, we see potential for the Professional segment as it enables the opportunity to generate recurring revenue and would decrease IMINT's dependence of the volatile smartphone market. However, it is likely that the investment will incur higher costs and take longer to materialize than we initially anticipated.
Attractive long-term potential
We have lowered our estimates going forward, anticipating lower net sales and higher costs resulting in lower profitability. If management can execute on building the Professional segment and given that the stock price has come down significantly, we see a potential upside of 63,5 % with a CAGR of 17,8 % for 2025E. If we apply a margin of safety of 30 %, we see a potential upside of 14,5 % with a CAGR of 4,6 %.