At KVH's annual meeting today three of us had questions for CEO Martin Kits van Heyningen, led by managing member Jonathan Old III of Stamford, CT-based hedge fund Long Meadow Investors LLC.
Today's news about KVH Watch may have greater reach than meets the eye. KVH Watch is targeted at a ship's equipment makers. An important point here is that a single ship involves numerous equipment makers (ie. makers of engines, boilers, scrubbers, etc.), all of whom could be interested in KVH Watch. There's one system for IoT but multiple subscribers to the system on a single ship. KVH will install the IoT systems onto ships.
I didn't ask whether KVH might start paying dividends to shareholders. However, Old asked if KVH is considering doing stock buybacks. Martin said they would consider it but didn't elaborate. There was no mention of paying out dividends.
One avenue where KVH intends to invest some proceeds from the recent sale of its Videotel group of companies is to accelerate its autonomous vehicle efforts. Martin said companies have shown interest in partnering with KVH but not in investing in KVH for that purpose. Martin said that KVH is "a small company aiming for large markets."
Several automakers are testing KVH's photonic chip technology in its high-precision fiber optic gyros. Martin said that KVH has gotten patents on it and has other patents pending.
In the autonomous realm, Martin said KVH is working with Local Motors Inc. of Chandler, AZ, on its autonomous shuttle Olli. Gaithersburg, MD-based Robotics Research makes "autonomous kits" and uses KVH's sensors in them, Martin said. Local Motors and Robotics Research also work together. Robotics Research has contracts with the DOD and as such offers KVH exposure to the DOD.
My overall takeaway from the meeting is that KVH is making progress in key areas. Investors seeking a home run by the end of 2019 may have to settle for extra-base hits instead. |
