Is the Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) share price a buy at $36? I think the electronic PCB software business is a great company.
Altium's share price has been a strong performer over the past couple of months. Since 23 March 2020 the Altium share price has gone up by 45%. That's strong gains if you bought at the time, but what about now?
There are plenty of reasons to like Altium:
Growing profit margins – A business can grow its profit faster than revenue if the profit margin can increase as economies of scale keep increasing. These are the types of businesses we want to have in our portfolio. Altium is a great example of this effect (in normal times).
Strong balance sheet – It's the businesses with a strong balance sheet that are able to cope with the coronavirus situation the best. Altium has no debt and a solid pile that was growing, until recently at least.
Excellent management – I think the management is one of they key reasons the Altium share price has done so well over the past decade. They are long-term focused, set tough but attainable goals and are very considered with capital.
Growing dividend – There aren't many businesses that offer that attractive combination of fast growth and a growing dividend. Plenty of businesses retain all their profit for further growth. But a dividend is a nice way of getting returns without resorting to selling shares.
So Altium's share price is a buy today?
I'm confident about Altium's long-term future. The issue I see is the short-term. Altium has already warned that it's having to reduce prices to continue to attract new subscribers. That's the right thing for the long-term – prices can be increased in the future. But it will hurt Altium's profit in FY20 and maybe even FY21.
We don't yet know how much profit pain that will entail. It's true the Altium share price is being helped by the current ultra low interest rates. However, we should be cautious about businesses that are being priced with not much downside. I'd be interested if Altium's share price was under $30, so I'm going to wait for a better buying opportunity.
