It has been another disappointing day for shareholders of BWX Ltd (ASX: BWX). Its shares are deep in the red once again, bringing its monthly decline to over 18%.
I'm a big fan of the personal care company and especially its Sukin skincare brand. Sukin has been a big driver of growth for BWX by helping the company report a 20% jump in sales to $54 million for FY 2016.
I'm always impressed by companies that grow profits quicker than sales and BWX has been doing exactly that. In FY 2016 net profit after tax grew 25% to $12 million. This was driven by an improvement in margins as a result of transitioning its product mix away from low margin goods and realising greater efficiencies in manufacturing.
The good news is that this positive performance looks set to continue. Chief Executive Officer John Humble has forecast for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation to grow by 30% in FY 2017. He has pointed to strong growth momentum in the domestic market, as well as sales growth in the United Kingdom and China as being key.
Earlier this year BWX announced that the Sukin brand would soon be hitting the shelves of Boots pharmacies in the UK. I see Boots as a similar business to the Australian Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ASX: API) owned Priceline brand and expect it has a strong chance of replicating its Australian success in the UK market.
So with such strong growth prospects, why are the shares falling?
That is the million dollar question unfortunately.
In my opinion it is down to profit taking. Since listing just under a year ago its shares have gone gangbusters. Up until the middle of last month they had increased by over 120%.
With 13 million shares coming out of escrow next week, investors may have feared the owners of these shares would take profits as soon as they were permitted to sell them. By selling in October, current shareholders have in effect beaten them to it.
Whether that is the case or not we may never know. But what I do know right now is that its shares are changing hands at just 21x forecast FY 2017's earnings according to CommSec. At this level its shares look to be a bargain buy when you take into account its strong growth prospects.
So should you invest?
I think BWX is up there with Bellamy's Australia Ltd (ASX: BAL) as one of the best growth shares on the ASX. But I might suggest waiting until after the 13 million shares come out of escrow on November 12. An even better entry point might yet present itself.
