The share price of Integrated Research Limited (ASX: IRI) is under pressure today after downgrading its guidance.
Integrated Research is an global IT business that provides user experience and performance management solutions for payment transactions and collaborative systems. It helps optimise mission-critical systems with insights that aim to be intelligent and actionable.
Profit downgrade
Integrated Research said that it made a continuous disclosure announcement – meaning keeping the market informed – on 18 December 2020 about its revenue and profit estimates for the half-year ending 31 December 2020.
At the time, the company said that the range of estimated for revenue and profit were wide because of the unpredictability of business closure in the remaining weeks of December.
Management said that the trading performance since that announcement has been below expectations with a continuation of customers deferring purchasing decisions. As a consequence, the company has revised its estimates downward.
Integrated Research now anticipates revenue for the first half of the FY21 to be in the range of $34 million to $37 million, compared to the prior corresponding period of $53.2 million. That means revenue is expected to fall by 30.5% to 36.1%.
It also said that profit for the first half is anticipated by the company to be in the range of $0 (breakeven) to $2 million, down from the prior corresponding period’s profit of $11.8 million.
The previous guidance, given just a couple of weeks ago, was that revenue was expected to be in the range of $41 million to $47 million and profit was expected to be in the range of $5 million to $8 million.
To give the market more clarity, Integrated Research will give another update on its unaudited results before mid-January with the formal half year result announcement scheduled for 18 February 2021.
Summary thoughts
Integrated Research is a good business, but it’s currently going through some difficulties. Most of the world isn’t in such a good state like Australia is when it comes to COVID-19 and the impacts.
This may be a chance to buy the company during shorter term pain, but I don’t have enough knowledge about the business to have any strong conviction about an investment call.
There are other ASX growth shares I’d rather buy for my portfolio such as Pushpay Holdings Ltd (ASX: PPH).
