In early trade the shares of software-as-a-service company WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) jumped almost 7% higher to $5.99 on the day of the company's annual general meeting.
The market has clearly reacted positively to founder and CEO Richard White reiterating its full year earnings guidance.
In FY 2017 the cloud-based supply chain management software provider expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation to come in between $50 million and $53 million. This represents incredible growth of 59% to 68% on FY 2016's result.
Driving the strong performance has been the growing popularity of its CargoWise One platform. Used by 19 out of the top 20 global logistics service providers, the platform allows companies to better manage the global supply chain.
As more and more logistics companies move away from aging legacy systems, I expect CargoWise One will see solid demand sustained for a number of years to come.
One thing that I find particularly impressive with WiseTech Global is its customer attrition rate. At under 1% I believe this is a testament to the quality of the platform the company has created and provides the company with a strong foundation to build from.
At 57x estimated FY 2017's earnings WiseTech certainly doesn't come cheap. But just like fellow software-as-a-service company Aconex Ltd (ASX: ACX), I believe the growth potential justifies the premium.
As a result I would class WiseTech as a great long-term buy and hold investment. But due to the high multiples it trades on I would suggest investors limit an investment to just a small part of their portfolio.
As we have seen many times before, growth shares that fail to deliver on expectations can be cut down to size quickly. Thankfully I have confidence that WiseTech Global is in a strong position to deliver on its promise.
