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Seemingly endless supply of 5.37 to 5.39shares available to buy. I took advantage, bought some.
No mention of these orders on Seeking Alpha or Stocktwits or Yahoo. Gotta love this opportunity to buy just ahead of the crowd.
sssshhhhhh….ya think the upcoming PR announcing $9mil of orders might jump start the stock….hush
By the way, anyone else impressed with how VTSI has been trading for the last week or so? Relative to the market and relative to other similar tiny companies it has been a rock - in a good way. Someone is slowly accumulating shares as they are being offered. Still tiny volume but at least there is one or two or three careful buyers keeping watch.
I know. I just thot the whole POWW saga of the last couple weeks makes for a fascinating read and it provides an inside look at how the BOD of a small company functions…..or fails to function with all hand picked yes-people. I suspect the VirTra BOD is similar….all hand picked except maybeFerris underestimated the brains, backbone, and resolve of Givens. That’s what happened when POWW ceo Fred gave Urvan a BOD seat….oops!
I couldn’t stand the silence, so…..
Remember a week or two ago when I was wishing the POWW CEO Fred would buy VirTra? Well, since then he did something incredibly stupid, he announced his intention to split Ammo, Inc into two companies. It really is a stupid idea and as a result the stock has tanked by 40%.
The reason I bring it up is because one of the POWW directors has decided to go after control of the company to halt the split. Just a day or so ago he put forth an alternate slate of 7 directors! I didn’t know that a sitting BOD member could do this. Pretty ballsy move, though he is the biggest shareholder at 17%.
Makes me wonder why a guy like Givens or Richardson didn’t try this sort of approach? Maybe simply because without being a big shareholder it would be an impossible path? It also makes me wonder if Givens promotion to CEO was driven by Givens….or maybe Richardson?
Another reason VirTra is making improvements might be to straight arm away a couple circling activists. Thing is, the activists also want actions focused on the sales Org. That remains the aging old elephant in the room.
Just reflecting a bit......In hindsight it is perhaps good that what transpired over the last 9 months did happen. What I mean is the prolonged painful implementation of the ERP system, the missed SEC filings, the torturously long "move-in" to the new HQ, the continued lack of focus on what really matters.....Selling Systems and Products. In my view, VirTra's complacency over the last 5 years, the lack of an active BOD holding the CEO to concrete performance objectives, the continued hiring of third tier talent at leadership positions, listening to "grubby street people" for financial structuring advice, etc.....all this stuff finally caught up with Ferris and the company.
The good news, perhaps great news, is that it is never the wrong time to do the right thing. So obviously Ferris, likely with the encouragement/support of Givens, has finally taken some real corrective actions to improve the company. The promotion of Givens, the Aug 15th employee restructurings, today's CFO news, are all big steps in the right direction so kudos to Ferris and Givens and the BOD.
That said, none of it will matter unless the company pivots hard and fast and smart and finally structures a sales organization to sell product. This is the elephant in the room that VirTra continues to ignore. Why on Earth has Mulcahy survived in his role this long? By the one and only deliverable that he is responsible for he has failed, that being delivering aggressive profitable revenue growth. The company is still stumbling along at a terribly slow growth rate in the face of a macro environment that has been as good as it can be for the last several years. The sales org must be addressed asap.
Absolutely fantastic news for the reasons you stated. Big upgrade!
The run has begun! I keep right on buying, might pause near $1.20….but I think it goes up and over 2.5
Why hasn’t Burlend been removed from company website?
Now almost 2/3rds through Q3. Isn’t it about time for Givens to produce something of substance wrt revenue? His 10% staff cut was a nice start, every organization should do it every year and the top tier ones do.
I would also hope we see some insider stock buys but been waiting on that for a decade now.
Wonder why they are so slow to get fully into their new HQ?
Overall it does not feel like any sense of urgency on anything. Still way too much contentment.
Pretty good day for VTSI on a very tough market day. Anyone else think Givens will be at the helm pretty soon? Maybe he already is?
Final straw for me was when analyst asked if future filings will be on time. Simple softball question. Just give a firm confident YES and move on. Instead he hemmed and hawed and screwed himself into the ground before Givens couldn’t take it anymore and chimed in with firm sure YES. Incredible.
I sold most of my pcti, only kept a tiny position to follow along. I think it will do ok.
OT::That is awesome and great job trading! Each of us investors/traders needs to figure what we most enjoy AND what we are good enough at to make money. It sounds like you are in a good place investing-wise.
I always thought that as I aged or became a more seasoned investor that I would morph more towards dividend heavy stocks. But I never really have simply because I have discovered I don't have as much patience as I think I have. I have made a few forays into that world, some successful and some not. My world is mainly small cap undervalued reversion to the mean sort of stocks like JOB, FARM, SUP, BELFB, GIFI, JVA, HRTG, BBGI, etc. VTSI does not even fit what I normally buy since it is more of an undervalued growth stock with a great story and potential but I got hooked on it!
I damn near had an aneurism whenever Ferris talked. Can he ever just answer a question directly and confidently without rambling? Givens is fabulous in comparison was the obvious driver behind the reorg. Clearly COO Burlend bit the dust due to ERP snafus and other things since he was the COO. VTSI stock will trend up.
Congrats on a profit! The question is…..what other stock(s) will you be buying?
In now having an hour to ponder this, while the quarterly numbers are nice, the best news really is that Ferris is losing more and more control of the company. This might even be intentional on his part. First came the big cap raise dilution, then promoting Givens to co-CEO, now allowing Burlend to leave. Given the long term colleague/team/friend relationship these two had that span decades I cannot believe that Ferris was the driver behind this move or even condoned it.
So the next couple months will be truly interesting. Will they fill the BOD seats with smart competent driving forces or will they be underqualified third tier Yes people, or will an activist have just now spotted the opening and put forth an alternative slate, or none of the above. Will Ferris slide out of CEO role and remain as COB and perhaps add a CTO title? Will Ferris depart for a new start up? Really interesting stuff.
Change always energizes me and makes me optimistic.
Didn’t know accelerating was in the vocabulary
Matt Burlend is OUT....celebrate! best news ever! Very nice report, $8mil and 59% gross margins.
The timing of the announcement today bodes well for tomorrow. Usually when they have a crummy quarter they issue this sort of PR a day or two after the earnings report. It also suggests they want to talk about it a bit in tomorrow's conf call as it is clearly an invitation for analysts to ask questions.
I will take the "over" on chi's recent revenue range.
And more today! Should get PR next week with earnings date.
My guess is $850k Gaap Net Income, $1.30million Adjusted Net income. Headline adjusted EPS of 12cents. Revenue of $9.1million. Stock opens at $5.45 and closes on Friday at $6.80. Friday trading volume of 1.7million shares.
Another possibility is gaap Net Income or Adjusted Net Income? One would logically think they made an apples to apples comparison yoy but knowing these guys it could be apples to oranges and could surprise biggly either way.
A couple comments:
1. One would think the $1.4 number is correct, but it might not be.
2. The stock still seems to be driven by stories and potential rather than the numbers.
3. If the 6 month number is 1.4 and there is no other good or bad news then we are stuck at $5 for three more months.
4. Why did they include the 1.4 number in todays filing? That was a choice. Wonder why?
You are right, stock price is the same today as in July, 2016. Absolutely zero shareholder wealth creation in over 6 years! Yes, the company market cap is 30% higher now due to the cap raise but that does not create wealth for shareholders.
I share your sentiment wholeheartedly, but just to play a bit of devils advocate I would argue the company is better today than then for a variety of reasons….higher revenue, more robust products, better owned assets, better balance sheet, perhaps better forward prospects. I also think it is a better stock to buy today than 6 years ago simply due to most valuation metrics being lower.
Friday will tell the tale for me. If they lay another egg then I will exit the stock over the coming months. Simply too many other good deep value stocks to buy right now.
Any chance VirTra announces Q2 on Friday and the stock sees no reaction? Rather remarkable that Q4 did nothing and Q1 did nothing for the stock.
I’ve been through lots of earnings announcements the last two weeks and most every one resulted in a major (some up, some down) move for the stock. Yet VTSI seems oblivious.
There are 3million more VTSI shares in the accounts of mostly new shareholders since the cap raise 17 months ago. Most of those likely near the current $5 price. Is everyone just content to hold? But not to buy more? Or to sell? I never thought daily volume would return to the numbers of 5 years ago.
VTSI needs a jump start! Hopefully Friday is it.
The reason VirTra is such an easy private equity target and easy buyout target is precisely because their main problem is EASY, SIMPLE to fix. Their revenue growth rate is simply too slow, that is the main problem. The fix is obvious and easy, put in place a sales leader/structure/sales org that sells to USA police departments. They could easily and predictably grow at 100% per year for the next 2 or 3 years and have a long term growth rate of 35% if they simply did this. It is that easy.
VirTra has never even tried to SELL systems and training to police departments. Their entire focus is fed gov and the sales they get to PDs are accidental. VirTra has no idea, no clue what it takes to SELL PRODUCT. They do not know how to hire a leader, do not know how to structure a sales org, have no idea how to even approach selling product to public municipalities.
Think about it this way....What would VirTra revenue look like in 3 years if Axon was running it? What would it look like if a guy like Musk took interest? Look at what the POWW CEO did in 5 years....$2mil sales to $300mil and will be over $1billion by the time the company has its 10th birthday. Or think about what the first thing you would do if you owned 100% of VirTra, you would bring on board a young aggressive seasoned CEO and Head of Sales. Done!, Simple! Easy! Obvious!
The enterprise value is roughly $45million.
We are over half finished with FY2022.
FY2022 revenue will likely be a bit over $30mil.
FY2023 likely to be $40mil.
Company is consistently profitable.
There is still potential here, story remains intact.
It remains an easy buyout target.
It remains attractive for a public to private then fix then IPO.
Any seasoned Management team could take this to $300mil revenue in less than 5 years.
If VirTra simply hired a great sales leader and let him perform, the company would explode.
The company is easily fixed, someone will do it and Ferris cannot prevent it.
I will reserve further judgement til next Friday but I feel pretty good about owning the stock.
Interesting. Then the only other explanation that makes sense to me is Ferris is planning to step aside or step back into a lessor role within the next year or two.
I still think Givens was promoted for something he did, not something he will do. No way Ferris gives up his CEO title without a legit justifiable reason. I think we get the answer on Aug 19th.
I also continue to believe that VirTra does not try very hard to sell systems and training to police depts. It is an easy and massive opportunity and VirTra goes at it in an uncommitted way.
The good news in Q1 was the recovery in gross margins to historic levels. That was the one bad thing in the recent Q4 report. The other good news in the Q1 report was the reduction in cash on hand as that suggests Q2 and Q3 should be pretty strong....or perhaps they simply picked out some really expensive draperies for the new offices.
It would be nice to know if most of the Q1 6.8mil revenue came late in the quarter as that would also help explain the cash on hand.
I'm wrong all the time on this stock, but it feels to me like Aug 19th is going to be very special in a good way. Buckle up.
This is still an excellent buy.
I appreciate the guidance as I need all the help I can get. Today is only Aug 5th so there are a full 10 days of trading before the 19th and that seems like an eternity with the two pending announcements. I guess at my core I have to believe that Givens was promoted for a reason, a real reason, something that he has already delivered. So, even if the two earnings reports both suck I am clinging to the hope that they announce some big Military thingy.
As an aside, I think my call buying only has about a 20% chance of working out profitably for me. Maybe even less cuz even if I am correct about Q1 and/or Q2, maybe the stock moves in a way that surprises me….in a bad way.
Yep, you are correct and I am very familiar with options….so I know I’m playing with poison.
Usually I sell covered calls or buy calls but typically only with liquid stuff. Normally I would never buy such short duration calls but I did so because of the extraordinary unusual situation facing Vtsi. Between now and Aug 19th end of day VirTra will have two more earnings reports and a conf call. That is only 11 trading days away and Vtsi is hovering near the strike. I am only risking $1050 at this point which is why Inequate it to gambling.
I made the bet because if Q1 on Aug11th is either a $10mil or 20cent quarter then the stock will be $6.5 immediately in my view and my $1050 is worth $4500. If that happens I close out the calls.
If Q1 on Aug 11th sucks then I keep the calls and pray for a Q2 miracle on Aug 19th.
For me it is worth the risk and provides me with $1050 of amusement. Actually less since it is in a taxable account and I could use some losses.
Since all the “activists” are either too smart or too stupid to act, I think I will contact the Ammo, Inc CEO and tell him to consider buying VirTra. He could drive VirTra revenue to $300mil in a heartbeat. They already have some of the same customers and are in sister industries.
Thankyou, I appreciate the reply…..and I sure hope you are wrong! I bought more shares today and 30 $5 call contracts for Aug 19th. Tiny bet but gives me my Las Vegas taste without having to travel there. Had to pay 35cents since no sellers below that number. Will try to buy more the next few days. Cheers. Bought a bottle of Gentleman Jack today, not bad but I’m still on a Crown Royal vanilla kick.
Sharpchicity…..In light of what VirTra reported and discussed yesterday what are your new estimates for Q1 and Q2? Thnx
I hadn’t even thought about buying options! I might just buy some 5 calls myself. 2 more reports between now and expiration, that is crazy, could be pretty fun. Good luck!
Thoughts on this?….Q1 revenue and EPS will be spectacular. At least that is my guess. If Q1 was only ok or even subpar there is no way they would report those numbers without a conf call. They must feel good enough about Aug 11 to know the cc can wait til Aug 19 with the Q2 report.
Ferris was so careful yesterday not to discuss specifics of Q1 and Q2 that it was shocking to me. And Givens came across as supremely confident and was recently given a crown on his head….gotta be a real reason other than he talks a good game.
I guess I feel like the stock remains a strong buy and is likely to go up biggly between Aug 12 and 19th. Anyone selling today is a fool.