Q4 | Auer Growth Fund Stock of the Quarter: Alarum Technologies Ltd. [ALAR]
Q4 2023: [ALAR] – The managers of the Auer Growth Fund screen thousands of stocks every quarter. This discipline sometimes leads us to an interesting company—with a story or history or performance—that might not be on most investors’ radar. We will be highlighting one of these companies quarterly here. However, we are NOT advocating that the stock is our best-performing stock or that you should purchase it for YOUR portfolio. Because of mutual fund laws and disclosures, we must be careful in discussing any of our holdings, yet we do feel it’s interesting to share information on the company, for this quarter, that we find most intriguing. Please note that, due to our disciplined investment process, this stock may not be currently held in the AUERX portfolio.
Our “Stock of the Quarter” pick for Q4 of 2023 is Alarum Technologies Ltd., stock symbol ALAR. This company is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, and operates in a very exciting area of cybersecurity and AI (artificial intelligence). The company has been working on a program they call “NetNut,” which can scan through search engines and dig up extensive data using AI; they also have products focused on protecting computer systems from malware and cyberattacks. Alarum has been investing in research into this specific area and announced their first profitable quarter on November 28th, with sales of $6.7 million and a net profit of $1.1 million for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. At this point, it qualified as a purchase in the fund (0.4646% on 12/20/2023). Alarum claims that their success this past quarter stems from a shift away from consumer cybersecurity and towards enterprise cybersecurity.
As of December 15th, statistics from Yahoo Finance show the last 12 months revenue of $17 million, the company has a market value of $25.0 million, the market close price is $4.34. The trailing 12-month price-to-earnings was not calculatable, as they have not had a year of profits yet, and the dividend yield was 0%. The book value is $0.18 a share, the total long-term debt is $3.4 million, and total cash is $3.8 million. AUERX is very interested in the investment of this cybersecurity firm from Israel, Alarum Technology (ALAR).
Holdings are subject to change at any time and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Current and future portfolio holdings are subject to risk.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The thoughts and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author. The discussion of individual companies should not be considered a recommendation of such companies by the Fund’s investment adviser. The discussion is designed to provide a reader with an understanding of how the Fund’s investment adviser manages the Fund’s portfolio.