The Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) share price has continued its positive run on Friday.
In afternoon trade the printed circuit board (PCB) design software provider's shares are up 2% to a record-high of $40.19.
This latest gain means that Altium's shares have climbed 66% higher over the last 12 months.
Why is the Altium share price at a record high?
Investors have been scrambling to buy the company's shares over the last 12 months thanks to its impressive FY 2019 result and expectations for an equally strong performance in the current financial year.
In FY 2019 Altium continued to experience strong demand for its key Altium Designer product. This product allows users to design PCBs. These are small circuit boards found in most electronic devices.
Over the 12 months the Altium Designer product generated a 22% lift in software license revenue to US$62.4 million and a 13% increase in subscriptions revenue to US$58.5 million. This was driven by a 27% jump in Altium Designer seats and record growth in its subscription base to more than 43,600 subscribers.
This growth was supported by its other businesses. The Octopart search engine business recorded a 50% increase in search advertising revenue to US$17.9 million and its TASKING software licence revenue grew 44% to US$12.3 million.
Overall, this led to Altium posting a 22.6% increase in full year revenue to US$171.8 million, a 39.8% increase in EBITDA to US$62.7 million, and a 41.1% lift in net profit after tax to US$52.9 million.
This left the company well-placed to smash its FY 2020 target of US$200 million of revenue.
The future.
With its FY 2020 guidance now within grasp, management revealed its aspirational target for FY 2025.
Speaking about the result and the future, Altium's CEO, Aram Mirkazemi, said: "What makes this performance most outstanding is that it has been achieved while Altium has been focused intensely on investing to accelerate future growth. We are increasing the efficiency and reach of our transactional sales model and rolling out our new cloud platform Altium 365."
"These initiatives will power Altium's drive to market dominance and the achievement of our 2025 targets of 100,000 subscribers and US$500 million in revenue," he added.
And thanks to the Internet of Things boom which is driving increasing demand for its software, I feel confident Altium will deliver on this guidance.
In light of this, although its shares are at a record, I still see value in them for investors that plan to invest with a long-term view.
The same applies for fellow tech stars Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) and Xero Limited (ASX: XRO), which I would also be a buyer of.
