Kornit Soars 34% on Rosy Growth Guidance

Kornit Digital (KRNT) shares rose nearly 34% on Wednesday after CEO Ronen Samuel said that he anticipated soon hitting an inflection point, and reverting to year-over-year growth in the second half of the year.

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Quarterly revenue came in at $26.2M, which surpassed consensus estimates by 2%, even though it was a decline from $38.6M from a year ago. Earnings per share were $0.17, topping expected earnings on the Street by $0.01, or 6.25%

Kornit CEO Ronen Samuel remained very upbeat. “While our first quarter 2020 results were significantly impacted by efforts to contain COVID-19, we are very encouraged by the global reopening of the economy and see a clear path to reaccelerating top line growth,” said Samuel.

“The broader market disruption of the last few months has created an inflection point in the textile industry, further accelerating the shift to e-commerce and exposing the inherent supply chain challenges faced by traditional retail.” In his view, “there is a need across all segments for flexible inventory management, all of which is driving an increased need for on-demand digital production.”

He then stated that he expects to “deliver year-over-year growth for the second half of 2020.”

That was enough to send the stock soaring. Needham’s James Ricchiuti maintained a Buy rating and raised the stock’s price target $31 to $46, which in fact was surpassed once the market digested the earnings call and guidance.

In a recent note to clients, Ricchiuti stated that he was confident in “Kornit’s ability to reach management’s target of scaling the business to $500 million of revenue exiting 2023.” He went on to write that he regards Kornit as “one of the more compelling growth stories in our coverage universe.”

TipRanks data shows analysts to be moderately bullish on Kornit, with a 12-month price target of $40.20. And yet, given the run-up yesterday in Kornit’s stock price, that represents 16% downside potential. (See Kornit’s stock analysis on TipRanks).