Student Transportation Inc reports 13.3% revenue growth in FY2015 and 1.1 pp EBITDA Margin decline from 13.4% to 12.3%
14.09.2015 • About Student Transportation Inc (
$STB) • By InTwits
Student Transportation Inc reported FY2015 financial results today. Overall the company's long term financial model is characterised by the following facts:
- EBITDA Margin is declining: 12.3% in FY2015 vs. 13.4% in FY2014 vs. 16.0% in FY2011
- Student Transportation Inc has medium CAPEX intensity: 5 year average CAPEX/Revenue was 8.2%. At the same time it's a lot of higher than industry average of 6.7%.
- CAPEX is quite volatile: 33.5 in FY2015, 37.8 in FY2014, 41.8 in FY2013, 48.6 in FY2012, 13.5 in FY2011
- The company has potentially unprofitable business model: ROIC is at 3.7%
- It operates with medium-size leverage: Net Debt/EBITDA is 2.9x while industry average is 3.0x
Below you can find a comprehensive analysis of the key data driving the company's performance and stock price.
Student Transportation Inc ($STB) key annual financial indicators
| mln. $ | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2015/2014 |
|---|
P&L
|
|---|
| Revenue | 305.3 | 369.0 | 423.7 | 489.5 | 554.8 | 13.3% |
| Gross Profit | 47.4 | 57.2 | 62.6 | 66.4 | 127.2 | 91.5% |
| SG&A | | | | | 54.7 | |
| EBITDA | 48.7 | 55.7 | 63.0 | 65.8 | 68.3 | 3.8% |
| Net Income | 1.5 | 2.3 | 3.9 | 1.4 | 3.7 | 157.9% |
Balance Sheet
|
|---|
| Cash | 3.7 | 5.0 | 6.9 | 10.9 | 5.3 | -50.9% |
| Short Term Debt | 35.8 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | -100.0% |
| Long Term Debt | 161.6 | 215.4 | 220.2 | 273.9 | 204.9 | -25.2% |
Cash flow
|
|---|
| Capex | 13.5 | 48.6 | 41.8 | 37.8 | 33.5 | -11.4% |
Ratios
|
|---|
| Revenue growth | 14.3% | 20.9% | 14.8% | 15.5% | 13.3% | |
| EBITDA growth | -0.2% | 14.3% | 13.1% | 4.5% | 3.8% | |
| Gross Margin | 15.5% | 15.5% | 14.8% | 13.6% | 22.9% | 9.4% |
| EBITDA Margin | 16.0% | 15.1% | 14.9% | 13.4% | 12.3% | -1.1% |
| Net Income Margin | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.9% | 0.3% | 0.7% | 0.4% |
| SG&A, % of revenue | | | | | 9.9% | 9.9% |
| CAPEX, % of revenue | 4.4% | 13.2% | 9.9% | 7.7% | 6.0% | -1.7% |
| ROIC | 3.7% | 3.5% | 3.7% | 3.4% | 3.7% | 0.3% |
| ROE | 1.0% | 1.2% | 1.9% | 0.8% | 2.0% | 1.2% |
| Net Debt/EBITDA | 4.0x | 3.8x | 3.4x | 4.0x | 2.9x | -1.1x |
Revenue and profitability
The company's Revenue jumped on 13.3% in FY2015. Revenue growth was financed by EBITDA margin decline. EBITDA Margin decreased slightly on 1.1 pp from 13.4% to 12.3% in FY2015.
Gross Margin increased on 9.4 pp from 13.6% to 22.9% in FY2015.
Net Income marign showed almost no change in FY2015.
Capital expenditures (CAPEX) and working capital investments
In FY2015 the company had CAPEX/Revenue of 6.0%. Student Transportation Inc showed decline in CAPEX/Revenue of 7.1 pp from 13.2% in FY2012 to 6.0% in FY2015. Average CAPEX/Revenue for the last three years was 7.9%.
Return on investment
The company operates at low ROIC (3.73%) and ROE (2.04%). ROIC showed almost no change in FY2015. ROE increased slightly on 1.2 pp from 0.80% to 2.0% in FY2015.
Leverage (Debt)
Debt level is 2.9x Net Debt / EBITDA and 3.0x Debt / EBITDA. Net Debt / EBITDA dropped on 1.1x from 4.0x to 2.9x in FY2015. Debt dropped on 25.2% in FY2015 while cash dropped on 50.9% in FY2015.
Appendix 1: Peers in Industrial
Below we provide Student Transportation Inc benchmarking against other companies in Industrial industry for the last 5 years. We show data for the top-5 companies by key financial metric together with the median value for all the companies in the industry.
Top companies by Revenue growth, %
| Top 5 | FY2011 | FY2012 | FY2013 | FY2014 | FY2015 |
|---|
| Electrovaya Inc ($EFL) | 104.3% | -4.0% | -71.2% | 160.5% | |
| Enterprise Group Inc ($E) | 14.5% | 3.5% | 88.3% | 128.5% | |
| Carmanah Technologies Corp ($CMH) | 5.8% | -26.4% | -2.0% | 68.8% | |
| Exco Technologies Ltd ($XTC) | 22.4% | 19.7% | 0.9% | 50.5% | |
| Lumenpulse Inc ($LMP) | | 56.7% | 33.9% | 47.0% | 61.8% |
| |
|---|
| Median (91 companies) | 12.4% | 10.3% | 4.9% | 9.1% | 15.3% |
|---|
| Student Transportation Inc ($STB) | | 20.9% | 14.8% | 15.5% | 13.3% |
Top companies by Gross margin, %
| Top 5 | FY2011 | FY2012 | FY2013 | FY2014 | FY2015 |
|---|
| WSP Global Inc ($WSP) | 81.1% | 81.1% | 83.2% | 81.0% | |
| Pure Technologies Ltd ($PUR) | 75.7% | 77.9% | 78.0% | 77.5% | |
| Alarmforce Industries Inc ($AF) | 76.4% | 75.0% | 76.5% | 72.2% | |
| Epicore BioNetworks Inc ($EBN) | 59.0% | 60.8% | 63.2% | 64.1% | |
| FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd ($FLY) | 54.0% | 57.2% | 59.2% | 62.9% | |
| |
|---|
| Median (87 companies) | 23.3% | 23.2% | 23.4% | 22.9% | 26.1% |
|---|
| Student Transportation Inc ($STB) | 15.5% | 15.5% | 14.8% | 13.6% | 22.9% |
Top companies by EBITDA margin, %
| Top 5 | FY2011 | FY2012 | FY2013 | FY2014 | FY2015 |
|---|
| Canadian National Railway Co ($CNR) | 46.3% | 46.5% | 45.9% | 46.8% | |
| Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd ($CP) | 28.1% | 26.1% | 32.4% | 43.7% | |
| Vitreous Glass Inc ($VCI) | 29.0% | 31.4% | 32.2% | 37.8% | |
| Questor Technology Inc ($QST) | 25.1% | 25.7% | 34.9% | 34.1% | |
| Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd ($BIN) | 32.2% | 30.7% | 33.1% | 34.0% | |
| |
|---|
| Median (84 companies) | 8.1% | 9.1% | 8.1% | 7.1% | 10.0% |
|---|
| Student Transportation Inc ($STB) | 16.0% | 15.1% | 14.9% | 13.4% | 12.3% |
Top companies by CAPEX/Revenue, %
| Top 5 | FY2011 | FY2012 | FY2013 | FY2014 | FY2015 |
|---|
| Cargojet Inc ($CJT.A) | 6.8% | 7.0% | 6.3% | 54.1% | |
| Newalta Corp ($NAL) | 17.2% | 21.7% | 34.5% | 35.1% | |
| Enterprise Group Inc ($E) | 3.6% | 17.4% | 27.2% | 32.7% | |
| ENTREC Corp ($ENT) | | 35.0% | 26.7% | 29.5% | |
| Horizon North Logistics Inc ($HNL) | 25.1% | 26.5% | 16.3% | 24.1% | |
| |
|---|
| Median (91 companies) | 2.4% | 3.0% | 3.6% | 3.1% | 2.6% |
|---|
| Student Transportation Inc ($STB) | 4.4% | 13.2% | 9.9% | 7.7% | 6.0% |
Top companies by ROIC, %
| Top 5 | FY2011 | FY2012 | FY2013 | FY2014 | FY2015 |
|---|
| Vitreous Glass Inc ($VCI) | 26.1% | 30.5% | 32.3% | 48.3% | |
| Photon Control Inc ($PHO) | 10.1% | 21.0% | 44.4% | 38.0% | |
| SNC-Lavalin Group Inc ($SNC) | 14.6% | 10.7% | 4.0% | 35.2% | |
| Alarmforce Industries Inc ($AF) | 18.3% | 5.3% | 24.0% | 33.9% | |
| Epicore BioNetworks Inc ($EBN) | 24.8% | 28.1% | 16.1% | 32.5% | |
| |
|---|
| Median (92 companies) | 9.1% | 9.7% | 8.5% | 8.8% | 8.4% |
|---|
| Student Transportation Inc ($STB) | 3.7% | 3.5% | 3.7% | 3.4% | 3.7% |
Top companies by Net Debt / EBITDA
| Top 5 | FY2011 | FY2012 | FY2013 | FY2014 | FY2015 |
|---|
| Sigma Industries Inc ($SSG) | | 4.4x | 11.3x | 225.9x | 2.9x |
| H2O Innovation Inc ($HEO) | | | 4.2x | 73.2x | |
| Grand Power Logistics Group Inc ($GPW) | | 47.8x | | 53.1x | |
| Cargojet Inc ($CJT.A) | 1.8x | 1.5x | 1.5x | 31.5x | |
| IBI Group Inc ($IBG) | 4.2x | 6.5x | | 8.3x | |
| |
|---|
| Median (71 companies) | 1.1x | 1.5x | 1.5x | 1.3x | 0.4x |
|---|
| Student Transportation Inc ($STB) | 4.0x | 3.8x | 3.4x | 4.0x | 2.9x |
