Originally Posted by
trader_jackson
Your above points, both of which are valid (I'm not arguing that): Balance sheet 'shocker' and larger loss than analyst consensus (how many analysts cover AFT?) are due to the very thing they are addressing: debt and finance/interest costs (reducing EPS).
Significant earnings growth will support paying down debt - reducing the balance sheet 'shocker', and changing from USD to a NZD loan will reduce foreign currency exposure, whilst probably having interest costs as a result of AFT becoming significantly less risky due to a huge turn around in earnings.
So yes, if AFT's underlying business, which I note you have yet to comment on, wasn't so sharp, then I would be concerned about debt (eg EVO), AFT IPO'ed and borrowed to grow the companies product line, capabilities and geographic reach - they have delivered on all of these points and now at a point it can now repay that (rather expensive) loan with a very scalable operation.
Winner is right - the story is more important when it comes to a growth company (eg XRO) that the numbers
It is to early for a victory dance, but the victory dance is now a question of when, not if (and that when is a mere year away)