Zip Co: 1Q22 quarterly update
About the author:
- Author name:
- By Richard Coles
- Job title:
- Senior Analyst
- Date posted:
- 19 October 2021, 9:00 AM
- Sectors Covered:
- Insurance, Diversified Financials
- Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) has released its 1Q22 trading update to the market.
- We saw 1Q22 group sequential revenue growth of 8% as a reasonable outcome (in Z1P’s seasonally weakest quarter) and highlighting continued momentum. However with the FY22 consensus revenue forecast ($689m) implying +71% growth on pcp, Zip’s sales growth trajectory needs to improve meaningfully over Q2-Q4 to hit this level.
- We downgrade our Z1P FY22F/FY23F EPS by 4% and >10%. Our PT falls to (login to view).
- We continue to see longer term upside if Z1P can continue to execute on its ambitions of becoming a global payments player.
Quarterly update
Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) has released its 1Q22 trading update to the market. At the group level, 1Q22 revenue was up 89% on pcp and 8% on the sequential quarter, while merchants (55.2k) and customers (8m) rose 8%-10% on 4Q21 (+60%-80% on pcp).
By division, we note; US) – revenue (A$67m) and transaction volumes (US$702m) both grew 4%-6% sequentially, with customers (5m) and merchants (17.1k) growing 10%-14% sequentially; ANZ) - saw 5% sequential revenue (A$65m) growth, with 4%-7% sequential customer (2.9m) and merchant (37.9k) growth; and; 3) UK) – it remains early, but Z1P is doing A$1.2m of quarterly revenue (+20% sequential growth), with customers and merchants being +~35%- 80% on the 4Q21 level.
Other points of note: 1) management talked to a strong start to Q2, Z1P’s seasonally strongest quarter, led by rising in-store payments (CV-19 re-opening); 2) the latest Z1P Master Trust was oversubscribed and upsized to A$650m with senior notes getting a AAA rating; 3) the Z1P global rebrand is now complete; and 4) as previously announced Z1P’s instalment payment technology has been integrated in the shopping experience within the Microsoft Edge browser.
Analysis
We saw 1Q22 group sequential revenue growth of 8% as a reasonable outcome (in Z1P’s seasonally weakest quarter) and highlighting continued momentum.
However, with the FY22 consensus revenue forecast ($689m) implying +71% growth on pcp, Zip’s sales growth trajectory needs to improve meaningfully over Q2-Q4 to hit this level.
Our other key quarterly takeaways were; 1) while Z1P’s ANZ net bad debt ratio of 2.43% was largely in-line with pcp, it has risen from 1.87% at 4Q21; 2) revenue margins in the US were called out as still being around 7%; and 3) transaction value per average customer continues to decline in Australia (A$90), being roughly half of the pcp level, reflecting the impacts of Tap and Zip functionality.
Forecast and valuation update
We downgrade our Z1P FY22F/FY23F EPS by ~5% and >10%. Changes to our numbers reflect lower sales growth forecasts and some more conservative margin assumptions in future years. Our PT falls to (login to view).
Investment view
We continue to see longer term upside if Z1P can execute on its ambitions of becoming a global payments player.
Noting the stock continues to trade at a significant discount to peer APT (~6x sales versus ~25x), we maintain our ADD recommendation.
Risks
Risk to our ADD call are: 1) any slowdown in sales momentum; 2) competition affecting margins; 3) an inability to execute on the overseas expansion; 4) bad debt risks; 5) higher funding costs; and 6) regulatory change.
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