In this segment of "Industry Focus" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on Dec. 7, Fool senior analyst Asit Sharma and contributor Emily Flippen discuss the growth outlook for Brilliant Earth (BRLT 0.58%) and it looks very strong.
Asit Sharma: What stood out to you, and I will tell you what stood out for me. [laughs]
Emily Flippen: Well, maybe this is a cop-out answer to that question, but what's stood out to me was this is a profitable business.
I have to be honest, I wasn't expecting it, especially when you talk about businesses that are headed toward public markets, but this company had a 7% net income margin so far in 2021, 47% gross margins, which I guess I shouldn't be surprised given that the upselling and the up-marking that happens with things like diamond rings.
But I was really impressed with their financial performance. The type of business that doesn't necessarily need to go to public markets to stay afloat and I'd liked seeing that off the bat.
Sharma: Yes, I think that's so attractive about this company. In this day and age essentially, if you see a company with profitability, and let's say it does have a 7-10% net income margin. I can tell you sight unseen, that it's going to be trading at a really paltry multiple. Nobody's interested in this.
You can almost say in advance, so it's going to be trading at 20-30 times forward earnings. Bet your money, bet your big money. Why am I always right? Because despite getting knocked about this year, everyone is still paying for that revenue multiple in the high-tech companies.
We've been trained by this explosion of IPOs and direct listings and SPACs to look for that explosive growth. What happens if you get a company like this that's already profitable, but it's growing at a faster rate?
You're essentially getting a discount. The discount manifests itself about three years later once we go through potentially a bad interest rate cycle, and the whole market gradually, this big machine that just creeks and turns its focus.
Imagine this huge telescope on top of a mountain observatory. It turns into the focus goes from this outer space comet that it's tracking to revenue growth to the moon right in front of it and it's looking at earnings.
You're getting a company today, which is going to be valued maybe at a higher multiple of, you get 10-15% multiple expansion in the intervening years, potentially you get more earnings growth. There's something about these small companies that are consumer-facing now aren't as popular, could have a payoff, a nice payoff in the future.
I will say to, it does stump my typical sight unseen metrics for companies that either manufacture or handle inventory. I always tell people look for that 50% gross margin, at least. They're right under that at 47%, but the overhead is low, so they manage to have that seven percent profit that you mentioned.
These were all persuasive and it looks like from a chart in their S-1, the first six months also, as you mentioned, Emily, probably with the weird comparison from last year, that growth looks very strong in the first six months of this year.
