Ballantyne Strong, Inc. (BTN) research, news, and more from GeoInvesting

Company description

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Ballantyne of Omaha, Inc. is a leading developer, manufacturer and distributor of commercial motion picture equipment and long-range follow spotlights in the U.S. and abroad. The company's product lines are distributed on a worldwide basis through a network of domestic and international dealers to movie exhibitors, ride simulation operators and amusement park operators. The company's broad range of both standard and custom-made equipment can completely outfit and automate a motion picture projection booth and is being used by major motion picture exhibitors.

Research

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 14:21:43 GMT

Ballantyne Strong, Inc. (NYSE:BTN) ($3.01; $43.7M market cap) - Special situation investors may find this story interesting. We’ve followed BTN for years, and many past attempts by the company to revive its business have been unsuccessful. In April 2019, we mentioned the stock was back on our radar due to insider buying from Fundamental Global Investors, a fund controlled by CEO Kyle Cerminara. The buying has not stopped, with a number of form 4’s filed since April, increasing its ownership stake from 32% to over 36% as of the last 13D/A filing.

The company is looking to sell off its assets and become a private equity investment platform. Below is a quote from the Q1 2019 conference call:

“As we've previously discussed, we see Ballantyne Strong evolving into a holding company and ultimately operating as a publicly traded private equity investment platform. We've had conversations with numerous parties about each of our businesses, both directly and through an investment bank that has been engaged for M&A opportunities. We believe there are attractive opportunities to monetize parts of our businesses, acquire or merge with other companies, but we're actively evaluating those opportunities. We'll continue to evaluate merger, sale and acquisition opportunities for each of our businesses. And as we've said before, we'll only pursue deals that we believe add value for our shareholders.”

We generally don't invest in private equity stocks. However, the heavy insider buying combined with the company's goal to explore merger, sale and acquisition opportunities conveys that a potential business transaction could value the stock meaningfully higher than its current share price.

Research

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 16:19:11 GMT

Ballantyne Strong, Inc. (NYSE:BTN) ($2.05; $29.7M market cap) - During our Form 4 research, we noticed several insider buys of BTN sahres, mainly from Fundamental Global Investors, a fund controlled by CEO Kyle Cerminara. The fund owns roughly 32% of the outstanding shares. designs, integrates, and installs technology solutions for the cinema, retail, financial, advertising, and government markets worldwide.

In conjunction with the Form 4 buying, there were positive comments in the most recent quarterly earnings report (Q4 2018):

Kyle Cerminara, Chairman and CEO commented, “We demonstrated significant progress in all three lines of business during the fourth quarter, resulting in significantly improved quarterly operating results. Strong Cinema continued to produce stable high margin performance, while Convergent turned the corner on increased recurring revenue and lower operating costs in the fourth quarter. Strong Outdoor, which started operations in early 2018, began generating meaningful revenue for the first time.”

“Earlier in 2018, we took a number of steps to right-size and restructure our Convergent business, significantly reducing our operating costs while also accelerating higher margin recurring revenue. We also invested in the startup of Strong Outdoor, which is now beginning to generate meaningful revenue and is expected to continue to grow in 2019. Our Strong Cinema business continues to generate strong margins and reliable cash flow. The investments in the startup of Strong Outdoor and the restructuring of Convergent adversely impacted our reported operating results for the year. We started seeing the benefits of those initiatives in the fourth quarter and look forward to building on that foundation in 2019.”

We’ve followed BTN for years, and many past attempts by the company to revive its business have been unsuccessful. We are looking to learn more about BTN’s transition to a recurring revenue model and will keep you updated on our findings and research.

Comments & Business Outlook

Thu, 05 Mar 2015 05:00:00 GMT

Fourth Quarter 2014 Financial Results

Net revenues were $28.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared with $32.7 million in the same period of the prior year.
Net income totaled $318,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared with a net loss of $1.7 million, or ($0.12) per share, in the same period of the prior year.

Gary L. Cavey, President and CEO of Ballantyne Strong, commented, �Over the past year, we have repositioned Ballantyne Strong to become a more diversified company with greater exposure to higher growth markets in the digital media sector. We have made good progress on building up our business development capabilities in digital media and we are pleased with the quality of opportunities we have in our sales pipeline. With the higher margins we are generating, we are optimistic about our opportunities to deliver profitable growth in the years ahead and create additional value for our shareholder

Comments & Business Outlook

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:00:00 GMT

OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ballantyne Strong, Inc. announced today that it has been selected to provide 150 NEC digital cinema projection systems to Beijing Yida Jiuzhou Film, a newly launched exhibition company, and 100 projection systems to The Jinyi Group. Both are first-time Ballantyne customers. Approximately 50 of the systems were shipped in Q4 2010, and the balance is expected to ship principally in Q1 2011. Gary L. Cavey, President and CEO of Ballantyne, commented, “Our Asian digital cinema business continues to thrive as Chinese theatre exhibitors move aggressively to both convert existing theaters to digital as well as to expand cinema penetration across the country. We are delighted to forge new relationships with both Beijing Yida Jiuzhou Film and The Jinyi Group. Ballantyne remains well positioned to participate in Asian growth opportunities in coming years.”

With over 16 years of experience operating in Asia, Ballantyne has significantly expanded its presence in region over the past two years. The Company has full-service facilities in Beijing and Hong Kong and a recently opened satellite sales office in Shanghai.