RE:RE:RE:RE:A slowly sinking ship......Smcapinvestor-
Currency may fluctuate, however transaction volume is a pretty accurate metric of success or failure. A transaction drop in Australia of 6.2% in Q4, year-over-year, is pretty damning. No way how one spins it, this is going in the wrong direction.
You are correct that the Threshold acquisition will pick up some slack, however, it came at the cost of an additional $35 Million in debt, a stock dilution of 5.7%, and a further dividend obligation (at current rates) of $1.3 Million per annum.
UK did in fact demonstrate good growth in transaction volume, but the average revenue per transaction dropped due to competition. Factoring out profit from currency fluctuations, UK gained an additional 96,000 Pounds Sterling in additional revenue in Q4 2013 over Q4 2012. Currently, an Australian transaction is worth twice the revenue compared to one from the UK.
There is no doubt that DCI incurred some acquisition expenses in Q4 related to Threshold, but they would pale in comparison to the Australian acquisition, and would be offset by the increase in revenue from two months of operation of Threshold's assets.
I think you may have to dig deeper to find the underlying cause to the record 72% payout ratio.
Finally, I agree with your objection to the two analysts who slagged DCI - but not for the same reason. I think they were both poorly informed and focused on the wrong issues. I think the Cash Store issue is largely played out. There will be another drop next quarter, and then the bleeding should stop. Instead, they needed to focus on the long term issue of transaction (and revenue) contraction and debt obligations.