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Technology Stocks : KVH Industries, Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: dwintel who wrote (6954)1/21/2018 11:24:45 AM
From: awecr2  Respond to of 7249
 
Hi Dwintel,

They’ve clearly crossed a confidence threshold on the mass market FOG. That’s very good news. It looks like it’s going to be 2019 thing in terms of actual products. It would be nice to see a formal announcement regarding initial trials. That’s where the real excitement begins. Could be late this year.

This year is really dependent on HTS volume and/or, dare I say it, a TacNav contract. Q1 & to a lesser extent q2, still carry risk of disappointment. 2nd half is where things begin to accelerate. Now that we have a small win on the G&S side, 2nd half is looking really promising. Barring a TacNav contract, we need to hear that V7HTS and Agileplan demand is off the charts. I think that’s possible. If so, they will guide to double digit growth. I think accelerating growth beyond 20% comes with more hardware and an improvement to mobilecast. On that note, the light is at the end of this very long dark tunnel. We are within 6 months of a return to sustainable growth, inclusive of a high degree of confidence. It won’t take much to accelerate that growth or pull it in by a quarter.

One other thing. Viasat recently announced Viasat-2 will be live in February. Viasat has fallen off the radar because it’s clear KVH has transitioned to Intelsat. But I decided to look a little further into the KVH-Viasat relationship, knowing it expires this year. I found that there was an inquiry about it on the last Viasat CC. The response was that the relationship with KVH is good, they talk to KVH often and they see it as an interim move for KVH. He implied KVH is well aware of the ka advantage over the long-term. We’ve had conversations about this before but it begs the question now that Viasat suggests everything is fine....It sounds like KVH is still their maritime partner going forward. I always thought it didn’t make sense for Viasat to go into maritime on their own and KVH already uses their proprietary CRMA technology. V-2 also will cover some of the highest demand areas, in terms of leisure(and land), beginning next month. One has to wonder if KVH is readying a ka-only or ka/ku platform that brings about faster speeds on smaller antennas? The impact would be immediate in terms of both product ASP and service ARPUs. Maybe I’m reading it wrong? Wishful thinking perhaps. It’s worth mentioning that KVH needed to have a HTS product for existing customers so they didn’t run the risk of losing alienating them. A product and service, inclusive of ka will require an all new system and significant new investment for existing customers. It is prudent to offer choice in that kind of environment. Agileplans would make it easier for KVH to transition existing customers to a new platform without detrimentally damaging the existing business structure.

Anyway, things are looking up for the 1st time in a long while and long-term growth is in the cards. I would preface that with a word of caution on Q1 expectations and q4 results. The HTS ramp is just beginning and the near term hardware impact is sizable. It would be nice to see that elusive TacNav contract so short-term expectations can be put to bed for good.

Aw



To: dwintel who wrote (6954)1/30/2018 12:48:55 PM
From: awecr2  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 7249
 
Today’s announcement by Chrysler and Waymo is what we have been waiting for in terms of accelerating the adoption of autonomous hardware. Every other company in this realm must accelerate their projects, now.

media.fcanorthamerica.com

Is KVH in this project. Who knows? Several years back, KVH acknowledged being on the google street maps vehicles. What’s most important about this is that KVH has said they are in most autonomous vehicle projects and those projects are on notice they must move now or see Waymo dominate the market. The good news from a product development standpoint is that we still aren’t talking 10s of thousands of vehicles. That is likely 2019/2020. KVH clearly doesn’t have a ready product in the correct price range at those volumes. But in the 1000s, they can likely deliver now. Price is still likely not an issue at this level. We should have a good indication on the next call of increased demand, if MKVH is being honest about KVHs position in the marketplace.

Aw