VOXX International (VOXX) has grown into a worldwide leader in the Automotive, Consumer Electronics, Consumer Accessories and Premium Audio industries; among its brands are Klipsch, RCA, Invision, Rosen, Audiovox and Acoustic Research, notes Bill Mathews, editor of The Cheap Investor.
Recommended in March 2017 at $4.25, VOXX moved to a high of $9.00 or +112%. Now that the stock has fallen below $5, we think it’s time to buy more shares. The company has a good balance sheet with $38 million ($1.55 per share) in cash, a book value of $18.27 per share and total debt of $18 million.
Insiders own about 10% of the 25 million shares outstanding, and 79 institutions own almost 70% of the float (shares in public hands). The only negative factor we see is the stock price has been trending downward.
On August 31, 2017, the company completed its sale of Hirschmann Car Communication GmbH and its subsidiaries. Total debt as of November 30, 2017 was $19.1 million, an improvement of $91.3 million as compared to February 28, 2017 as the Company used the net proceeds from the sale of Hirschmann to reduce the majority of its total debt position.
VOXX’s subsidiary, EyeLock LLC, a leader of iris-based identity authentication solutions, announced today that it has identified the trillion-dollar healthcare industry as a market where this completely touchless and highly secure biometric can have positive impact throughout the medical and healthcare communities.
Utilizing EyeLock's iris recognition technology to identify personnel before granting access to controlled substances at EMS stations improves security as well as accountability and operational efficiencies.
Additionally, EyeLock sees its technology as the core of a hospital's patient identification process, becoming a key component of the standard for positively IDing patients for drug administration, insurance, surgical procedures and for those who are unable to produce an identification.
We like VOXX’s basic automotive and electronics business, but we are also intrigued by its EyeLock subsidiary and its secure iris-based biometric technology. If VOXX continues to grow its sales and earnings, we think the stock has the potential to move at least 50% to 100% over the next couple of years.
