ASX Health Stocks: Trajan delivers another strong half as it upgrades guidance

Trajan has expanded through both organic growth and acquisitions
Trajan upgraded its revenue guidance for the full year after a strong half

Trajan Group (ASX:TRJ) jumped 11% this morning as the company announced another strong half.

In H1 FY23, Trajan’s revenue grew by 83% on the pcp to $80.1m, driven by organic growth despite difficult global macro-economic conditions.

The company announced a normalised bottom line EBITDA of $10.3m, which was a substantial increase of 115.9% vs the pcp.

Given the strong first half performance, Trajan has upgraded guidance for the full year FY23 – with revenue forecast expected between $155m-$165m, and normalised EBITDA between $21.7m-$25.8m.

Trajan has maintained its impressive track record of more than 11 years of consecutive growth.

The company is chaired by former Wallabies rugby captain John Eales, and had raised $90 million in the IPO at a price of $1.70 a share before listing in June 2021. As the TRJ share price surged to an ATH of $4.50 in January 2022, the company embarked on a dual strategy of organic growth and acquisitions.

A long but satisfying road

It has been a long journey for founder and CEO Stephen Tomisich, who started the scientific instruments business with his wife Angela 12 years ago at the kitchen table.

Trajan’s business was first initiated by the acquisition of two pathology consumables businesses back in 2011 and 2013.

Since then, the company has had a strong acquisition record, having completed multiple complementary acquisitions in the years following which were all self-funded.

Its latest acquisition was California-based Sierra Analytics, the maker of the HDExaminer software business, for US$430k.

HDExaminer is used in Hydrogen Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry (HDX-MS), which is a powerful technique providing insight into protein dynamics.

Trajan has also been the exclusive distributor of the HDExaminer since early 2018, and has thus become a global leader in the automation of the HDX-MS technique.

At its core, Trajan designs and manufactures a portfolio of precision consumable products, devices and solutions that are used in the analysis of biological, food and environmental samples.

The company effectively runs two business segments – the Analytical Products and Life Science Solutions segments.

But Trajan believes there is a collision between the healthcare and data technology sectors, and the company aims to be a leader in the data-based decision making in healthcare.

Trajan’s addressable market, which includes large OEMs, pharmaceutical and life science companies, research labs, pathology labs, and consumers, is effectively in the billions of dollars.

Guidance upgrade

As a result of the strong half, Trajan has upgraded its full year FY23 revenue to between $155m-$165m, while bottom line EBITDA is expected to come in at between $21.17m-$25.8m.

The company sits on a strong cash reserve of $21.1m, which can be used to support Trajan’s strategy execution and extension of production and manufacturing capability.

“The Trajan business continues to perform strongly, yet again delivering results aligned with guidance, building on our track record of execution with more than 11 consecutive years of growth against a backdrop of a broad range of prevailing macro-economic conditions,” said Tomisich.

“It is with this backdrop that we maintain confidence in our future growth prospects, upgrading our financial guidance, and with the ability to drive greater operational efficiencies and opportunities across our entire business.”