Revenues have been growing at Ocado at a pretty good rate, but is only now forecast to make a profit this year in FY2014. With a market cap of around £3,500m, the forecast earnings translate to a PE of around 186. With revenues forecast to increase over 17% next year and earnings to more than double, it would still have a forecast PE of 92 based on these numbers and current market cap. Looking at the balance sheet, it has £498m in assets and £295m in liabilities, which gives us net assets of about £200m. It is an online retailer but with the current market cap, it is valued at over 17 times its net assets.
These valuation metrics would suggest the stock is clearly overvalued on a fundamental basis and the only way these metrics can fall into line is for the share price to fall. Just as a comparison, Morrisons is valued at £5,500m and is on a PE of around 10 with net assets around £5,200m. Sainsburys is valued at around £6,500m and is on a PE of around 11 with net assets around £5,700m. If Ocado had a similar valuation, its market cap would be between £200m-£250m which equates to a share price of around 35p-40p. Perhaps because it is an online retailer and has first mover advantage, then it demands a premium on its fundamental valuation but with the numbers stated above, it looks highly overvalued.
Our analysis shows weak technicals and a disparity in fundamentals vs market value. Coupled with a confirmed negative bias in sentiment/momentum, on this basis we see a strong bear case to short sell the stock.
Ocado Group Fundamentals
Year Ending | Revenue (£m) | Pre-tax (£m) | EPS | P/E | PEG | EPS Grth |
28-Nov-10 | 515.69 | (12.21) | (0.83)p | n/a | n/a | n/a |
27-Nov-11 | 598.30 | (2.40) | (0.10)p | n/a | n/a | n/a |
02-Dec-12 | 678.60 | (0.60) | (0.46)p | n/a | n/a | n/a |
01-Dec-13 | 792.10 | (12.50) | (0.88)p | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Ocado Group Forecasts
Year Ending | Revenue (£m) | Pre-tax (£m) | EPS | P/E | PEG | EPS Grth |
30-Nov-14 | 948.28 | 16.71 | 3.26p | 186 | n/a | n/a |
30-Nov-15 | 1,113.50 | 35.89 | 6.59p | 92 | 0.9 | +102% |
7th Feb 2014, Deutsche Bank, Sell, target price 440p
5th Feb 2014, HSBC, Underweight, target price 230p
5th Feb 2014, Exane BNP, Underperform, target price 340p