illumin Holdings Inc T.ILLM

Baby Brother Thesis: AcuityAds(AT.TO/ACUIF) & The Trade Desk

[arbutus7]

*** Thinking about Buying Acuity or Adding More? Then read below ***
      (forwarded post from 'Dara' on yahoo finance board)

The thesis that Acuity is currently a small version of The Trade Desk (which is trading now at over $800 US Dollars) has been floating for a while. See the attached Financial Post article (link below) from 1.5 years ago where they suggest that even though AT is similar to TTD (and TTD is massive), AT actually has more room to multiply given it's smaller (i.e., baby brother stock thesis). Currently, it seems that the FP post article from 1.5 years ago was on to something .

https://financialpost.com/investing/investing-pro/five-baby-brother-stock-picks-that-could-follow-in-the-footsteps-of-big-winners

*A year later (5 months ago) Jim at Motley Fool expands this thesis in an impressive piece of insightful analysis in the Hidden Gem service (where they go in to detail on the comparisons and convincingly demonstrate that AT could be a future goldmine). Since that initial recommendation, MF seems even more convinced that this baby brother thesis is slowly turning into reality and that Acuity could explode in 2021.

Even more recently, just over a month ago, 5i Research Investments named AcuityAds as one of the best Canadian companies for future runaway growth. Similar comments have been made by other advisors.

The 5i statement was subsequently followed up by yet another piece of detailed writing (posted below), this time by *Virtus Advisory Group* who put forth a strong buy recommendation (once again making a comparison between AT and TTD).

Flash forward to the past couple weeks where a "DIGITAL ADVERTISING BOOM" has been taking place in the market. Earnings have not only returned to (and are often better than) pre-pandemic times, but the pandemic has actually pushed our lives further online and that the gradual move to digital advertising has accelerated at an incredible rate. AcuityAds with their advanced AI (and ROI) stand to gain in an incredible way - AND, remember, Acuity just launched *illumin*, which now sets them apart from the entire industry of digital advertising. As their CEO noted in an earlier interview, once illumin catches on and the market sees its potential (he estimated six months for this new innovation to become more institutionalized in the advertising field) Acuity will take off and become a leader in the field. He also stated Acuity is interested (when the time is right) in moving to the NASDAQ.

So, if you read all of the above then you should probably see now that 7 dollars (Canadian) for Acuity is STILL really cheap and that Acuity could really run over the next half year and into the future. Basically, this stock is still going to double, triple, and more (especially after the NASDAQ and investors in the US make the baby brother (to TTD) thesis connection). So, BUY and HOLD long term (retire early stock here).

See below where I have posted in the write-up from a month ago by Virtus financial advisory group.

VIRTUS ADVISORY GROUP: *Strong buy for Acuity*

As we mentioned, Acuity continues to appreciate with the stock now up well over 300% since the March lows of $0.74. The amazing part is, from our perspective, the stock still trails significantly on a valuation level from its competitor The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) despite similar levels of revenue growth.

*On October 1st, Acuity had the official launch of their new illumin platform. The company has been talking about this new Self-Serve platform since the end of 2019 and we are thrilled to see that despite a delay due to COVID-19, management has delivered what they believe to be a revolutionary new product. As a reminder, the company had been in beta testing with six large brands with early feedback being resoundingly positive.

What makes this new technology special? A few key points to keep in mind:

*Improved UI/UX* - no longer requires users to be experts in programmatic. The reason Facebook’s advertising platform is so successful is because everyday business owners can manage the platform with ease. This has never translated to large programmatic companies – Acuity is the first to offer this functionality.

*Campaign management* - With the new platform, advertisers can actually create a journey for users. Instead of showing potential clients the same ad over and over again, advertisers can now design storyboards that show different ads based on different responses from the target audience

In our view, the recent run-up in the stock price is directly attributable to investors betting on the success of the new platform backed by strong fundamentals from the existing business. We can confirm that the company has been focused on non-deal roadshows over the last 2 months and the feedback from investors has been nothing but positive.

*Potential catalysts include:
-New large brands and agency clients using illumin
-Continued profitability with increased margins
-M&A activity
-Q3 financial results in November, Q4 Feb 2021, Q1 May 2021
-NASDAQ listing

[jaybull79]

The Peter Hodson article, love it! It was the day I discovered AT! Thanks for sharing all those details. So glad AT is finally getting the attention it has long deserved. I mean, without iIlumin, AT has topped $100 million in sales, and only until a few months ago, was trading at under 1x sales. If we hit $200 million in sales with Illumin, which has been thrown around for next fiscal, at a

[retiredcf]

And speaking of Peter Hodson, on Thursday, he was asked by a (likely) US subscriber if there is a Canadian stock in the same business as TTD.  So of course, his response was that AT is "fairly similar" in that it provides targetted digital advertising. He also added that it has had a huge run up (356%) so far this year. So on Friday, with trading volume close to 2M, there's no