In my opinion one of the most exciting small cap tech shares on the ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) is sports analytics company Catapult Group International Ltd (ASX: CAT).
The speed at which its unit sales are growing is phenomenal and this has very much being reflected in its share price. So far in 2016, Catapult shares have risen a whopping 87% compared to the All Ordinaries index which has declined by 0.5%.
The good news for investors that have turned up late to the party is that I feel this growth can continue for some time to come. It's all thanks to its industry-leading products and the potential growth of the market.
Catapult has developed both hardware and software that is used by elite athletes and sports teams across the world. The equipment provides detailed, real time data, and analytics to monitor and measure athlete fitness and skill levels, tactical performance, response to training techniques, and risk of injury.
One thing that has always impressed me with Catapult is its low churn rate, which management has advised is less than one percent. This in my opinion demonstrates that the end user is very pleased with the product and is seeing results from its usage.
The company has a growing client list using its products that consists of some of the biggest and most successful sports teams in the world. This includes English Premier League champions Leicester City, NFL Super Bowl winners the Denver Broncos, and UEFA Champions League champions Real Madrid to name just three.
As well as individual clubs, the company has league-wide deals with the AFL, NRL, and ARU. The company sees these league-wide deals as an opportunity for further revenue streams through the monetisation of data.
Leading Catapult's league-wide team is the vastly experienced Karl Hogan. The former Opta business development director has a strong background and was responsible for Opta's commercial relationships with UEFA, FIFA, the English Premier League and Football League, and the Eredivisie. As well as this he established commercial data agreements with Sky Sports, BT Sports, BBC Sport, Fox Sports, and ESPN.
This fills me with confidence that there will be more league-wide deals to come, as well as potential top-line-boosting data agreements.
Considering the strong growth of the top line at present, this is another reason for investors to get excited. Just last week the company announced an upgrade to its full year guidance which sent the share price higher.
For the full year management expects total units ordered to be 8,354 with a total contract value of $29.4 million. Previously it had guided to 8,000 units and $24.5 million total contract value. The new guidance represents an impressive year-on-year increase of 63% and 74%, respectively.
Whilst it should be noted that the shares are changing hands at 32x sales, I believe its growth prospects justify the premium. When you consider that the company is operating in a market estimated by Astute Market to be worth up to $4.7 billion by 2021, there could be a lot more growth to come for Catapult.
But like fellow growth shares Blackmores Limited (ASX: BKL) and Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd. (ASX: DMP), Catapult shares could come under pressure if the company fails to live up to the market's high growth expectations. For this reason I feel the shares are unsuitable for investors with a low tolerance for risk.
