Water Tower Research Publishes Initiation of Coverage Report on Kimball International, Inc. Titled “Initiating Coverage”
February 27, 2023, ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Water Tower Research (www.watertowerresearch.com) has published an Initiation of Coverage Report on Kimball International, Inc. (NASDAQ: KBAL) titled, “Initiating Coverage”. The report can be accessed here.
Kimball has a long and storied history. Management initiated its current strategy in 2014 as a pure play on commercial furniture in three end-markets: Workplace, Healthcare, and Hospitality. Under the leadership of veteran executive Kristie Juster, Kimball has demonstrated operating discipline in the face of challenging industry and macroeconomic conditions.
Kimball occupies a niche in accessory commercial furnishings with a focus on small- and mid- market customers. The company has demonstrated a commitment to good governance, conservative financial management, plus transparency with and commitment to stakeholders. For investors, Kimball has a consistent history of returning capital as dividends and buybacks.
The opportunity for investors, most likely small-cap, value-oriented investors, lies in the divergence between the quality of the business as seen in the resilient operating performance and the recent stock performance. Kimball is trading at 1.4x P/B (recovered modestly from 1.1x at year-end 2022) and ~6.3x forward FY23 EV/EBITDA.