Sylogist Ltd T.SYZ

Annual report learnings

[wellheeled]

Backlog down by $10M YOY
Interest paid on debt at 11% rate - almost $2M
Almost $5M in capitalized R&D.  If this was expensed (as it likey should be) loss would have been about $0.15 per share.  
Cash declined ~$3M
Foolishly repurchased stock when SYZ largest shareholder (Penderfund) sold over 800K shares in the last 3 months.   (Do you think Penderfund was party to recent analyst promontion of this stock?).
Heathly management compensation/bonuses of over $5M.   Is this justified?

[Possibleidiot01]

I find sedarplus amost unworkable so I have't doublechecked your numbers. Backlog down by $10 million ; what is the backlog ? Hard to tell if this is important with knowing the percentage? Did the interest rate , almost 11% vary from previously? I've never thought they had a cheap cost of capital. As for Penderfund , they still own 2.549 million shares ; are they not allowed to rebalance

[colourama]

Am I crazy in thinking that SYZ is rather expensive? They did $17.3 adjusted EBITDA for 2023, which is flat from the previous financial year, but with a worse margin. Yet trades at ~12 times adjusted EBITDA? Happy to be corrected on my viewpoint!

[wellheeled]

Not crazy in the least.   SYZ trades at 175x trailing 12 month earnngs with reported earning falling YOY and it burns cash.   Adjusted EBITDA is a BS number for measurement purposes.  When you capitalize $5M in R&D, amortization is a real cost.  Interest and taxes are real cash costs too.  The earnout (which continues for the next 2 years) is a real cash cost.  

[Possibleidiot01]

I liked the last sentence. Also the " Interest and taxes are real cash costs too." etc ...... Sylogist earns target raise at Paradigm Cantech Letter https://www.cantechletter.com › ... › Analysts › Software     4 days ago — In a research update to

[Possibleidiot01]

I'm reading the sedar filing Appears they do have variable rate debt. I still haven't found the backlog number - what is it? Financial year 2023 vs 2022 For the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, interest expense was $1.9 million, compared to $1.4 million for the fifteen-month period ended December 31, 2022. Adjusted for the impact of the additional three