I recently decided to sell half of my Temple & Webster Group Ltd (ASX: TPW) stock, yet I'm still optimistic about its outlook and growth potential.
This e-commerce ASX share has delivered big gains for shareholders – it's up more than 740% in the past five years and it has climbed over 280% in the past year.
Why I sold Temple & Webster shares
I was fortunate enough to invest at the end of October 2023. Since then the Temple & Webster share price soared more than 120% – I wasn't expecting to make that much that quickly.
In my opinion, no business is a buy at any price.
Temple & Webster is doing a lot of good things to grow its underlying value, but the size of the gain made me want to take some profit off the table.
I decided to sell half, rather than all my holding, because I still want exposure to the company. By selling half, I'd have recovered (more than) my initial investment and what's left is pure profit.
What I still like about the ASX share
The business is growing revenue at an impressive rate, which is one of the driving factors of the rising Temple & Webster stock price, and what attracted me to the business.
Revenue rose by 23% to $254 million in the first half of FY24, and it had increased by 35% year over year in the period between 1 January 2024 to 11 February 2024.
The company is demonstrating good profit margin potential. Its HY24 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin was 2.9%, at the top end of its full-year guidance of between 1% to 3%.
It aims to grow its revenue significantly in the next three to five years. I expect it can grow even more by 2030 (and beyond). The expansion into the home improvement and trade and commercial categories can help with its revenue potential.
Having an online model means it doesn't need a store network like its competitors, reducing costs and increasing margins. Many products are shipped directly by suppliers, so it doesn't need to hold much inventory.
If the business can keep capturing market share, then the ongoing adoption of online shopping is a powerful tailwind.
The company is expecting profit margins to grow as it scales, with particular scaling benefits relating to its fixed costs.
While I have sold half of my Temple & Webster stock, I'm hoping to buy plenty more in the future. In the meantime, I'm planning to put my sale proceeds to work in different ASX shares.
