Catapult Group International Ltd (ASX: CAT) saw its share price gain another 5.7% today to trade at $3.32, after another positive trading update.
The athlete tracking device and related software company says it has seen all-time record fourth quarter sales – and a financial year of consecutive quarterly record sales. As a result, Catapult saw 8,354 units ordered in the 2016 financial year (FY16) – compared to its November 2015 forecast of 8,000. Total contract value (TCV) was $29.4 million compared to $24.5 million forecast in November.
That represents strong double-digit growth of 63% in units over the previous year and 74% growth in TCV.
Mr Shaun Holthouse, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, said, "This is an exceptional finish to the year and shows the accelerated investment in our global sales and marketing platform is paying off. We continue to see growing demand for long term subscriptions amongst elite and professional clubs globally. Our ability to capture this demand whilst maintaining strong average revenue per user (ARPU) has been a key driver to a much higher TCV and mix of subscription units than expected, including via league level contracts."
Sporting teams around the world, particularly at an elite level such as English Premier League (EPL), National Rugby League (NRL), National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Australian Football League (AFL) have increasingly turning to technology to improve their on-field (court) performance.
A key factor in that is the ability to use tracking units like those sold by Catapult to monitor many aspects of an athlete's performance. That has lead to more and more teams in the same competition adopt Catapult's technology – either from fear of falling behind or simply to keep up with their competition.
Foolish takeaway
With strong future prospects, Catapult is one company I completely missed, despite nominating the company as one to watch in January 2015. – when the share price was under 60 cents.
