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The management team and Board of Directors of Pulse believe Pulse is a good investment. The Company's share price has appreciated from less than $1 per common share in mid-2003 to a high to date of more than $3.20 per common share in 2007. Since initiating its dividend program in the third quarter of 2003, Pulse has paid cumulative dividends of 51.25 cents per common share through the first quarter of 2008 - forming an important component of the Company's total return.
Three main factors, we believe, make Pulse a good investment:
Growth Growth is a basis of capital appreciation in the public markets. Pulse is a growth company with a strong and highly scalable business model. Pulse is committed to growing its seismic data library sales by continually augmenting its data library and through vigorous sales and marketing. Pulse owns the second-largest readily available set of seismic data covering the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Pulse has grown its 3D seismic data library to nearly 11,700 net square kilometres and its 2D seismic data library to 257,300 net kilometres.
This growth in capacity and top-line revenue is not particularly capital-intensive, and does not require adding to Pulse's current base of approximately 25 employees. This helps to maximize growth in Pulse's funds from operations and free cash flow. These key metrics are showing quarterly growth.
Yield Many equity investors appreciate receiving a steady cash return in the form of dividends, and seek out dividend-paying stocks. Pulse has paid quarterly dividends since the third quarter of 2003. Pulse's dividend substantiates its business model's focus on free cash flow, and demonstrates the Company's ability to generate free cash flow on a sustainable basis.
Since initiating the dividend at a rate of $0.0125 per common share quarterly, the Company has twice raised its dividend rate three times. The rate was raised to $0.025 per common share quarterly in the third quarter of 2005 and was raised again to $0.0375 per common in the first quarter of 2006. As of the third quarter of 2007 Pulse had returned a cumulative total of $19,432,701 (to September 20, 2007) in dividends to shareholders. On September 21, 2007 Pulse announced a 33 percent increase in its annual dividend rate from $0.15 to $0.20 per common share.
Value Pulse creates value in a number of ways. Seismic data retains its value, and Pulse has a superb library of high-quality, strategically located, highly available and competitively priced data. These strengths ensure that Pulse's seismic library data can generate repeated sales at high cash operating margins for years to come. This will help us to generate sustainable cash EBITDA and dividends into the future. This, in turn, will support our value in the capital markets.
We believe Pulse's cash-generating business model, its record of growth and its streams of cash EBITDA and dividends make the Company's stock a value investment. Although the North American peer group of seismic library data providers is very small, Pulse's peers trade at a higher multiple of seismic data sales. In our view, this discrepancy creates room for Pulse's share price to increase.
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