Soaring Altium’s surprise warning

Hours after its shares hit a an all-time high on Monday, electronics design software maker Altium issued a profit warning.

Altium chief executive Aram Mirkazemi.

Hours after its shares hit a an all-time high on Monday, ASX-listed electronics design software maker Altium issued a profit warning, telling investors that the company is likely to land at the lower end of its full-year guidance due to the impact of coronavirus in China and a change in Google's algorithm.

Altium, which climbed almost 2 per cent in trading on Monday to finish at $42.63, posted its half-year results after the market close, including revenue growth of 19 per cent year-on-year to $US92.8m.

The California-based company said it posted strong performances in all key business units and regions except for its fully-owned subsidiary, Octopart, a search engine for electronics and industrial parts that it acquired in 2015.

It blamed Octopart for a soft guidance, as well as growing uncertainty around the coronavirus, which is continuing to reverberate around global supply chains.

“Notwithstanding the strong first-half performance, the company is likely to land at the lower end of the full year guidance range,” the company said.

“This is due to the emerging uncertainty about the impact of the coronavirus in China and the slower start to Octopart in the first half." Altium, which is one of the so-called ASX 'WAAAX' tech darling stocks alongside WiseTech, Appen, Afterpay Touch and Xero, said it had achieved “accelerated profitability” which affected its tax rate, now at 27 per cent.

“This has resulted in a near flat EPS (earnings per share) which will continue for the remainder of the financial year,” the company said.

Altium CEO Aram Mirkazemi said the results were strong, particularly in comparison with the company’s already-good results in the year prior.

“There is no doubt that Altium has growing momentum toward market dominance and our 2025 targets,” he said.

“Our increase in new Altium Designer seats of 19 per cent and record growth of 16 per cent in our subscription base to 46,693 subscribers puts us well into our climb to reach 100,000 subscribers by 2025.

“I am confident that we will achieve our target of 50,000 subscribers by full year.”

Company CEO Joe Bedewi said that during the first half, Octopart was hit by the reduced volume in the parts distribution industry due to excess inventory

It posted an interim dividend of 20c, up 25 per cent year-on-year.