Although Canada isn’t often known for its tech stocks, it has fostered some giants through the years. Shopify (TSX:SHOP) is one of Canada’s best-known success stories. With a market cap of $286 billion and trailing enterprise value-to-sales ratio of 19, its growth story is already widely and loudly known.
There is no doubt it has created an incredible e-commerce ecosystem that can compete with the best (like Amazon.com). However, in many respects, it is already a global leader. The e-commerce platform is probably in the fourth or fifth inning of its growth story. There are still more legs for it to expand, but its growth is widely recognized with a premium valuation.
VitalHub: A Canadian small cap tech stock with ample room for growth
If you want to find the next global leader, you need to look for small or mid-cap stocks that are still early in their growth trajectory. One Canadian tech stock that looks interesting is VitalHub (TSX:VHI). This small-cap stock has a market cap of $623 million and trades for $9.93 per share today.
VitalHub provides specialized software catered to the healthcare industry. Its focus is on electronic health records (HER) management, case management, communication, and mobile solutions. However, it concentrates on niche service areas like social services, psychological support services, community support, and outpatient support.
This focus on niches helps it avoid competition with the big EHR providers like Oracle and Epic. It doesn’t operate in the very competitive U.S. market and mainly works in regions with public health services (like Canada, the U.K., and Australia).
A key to its growth has been making smart acquisitions. It has made over 20 acquisitions over the past several years. These acquisitions either expand it through scale, provide new products that it can sell across its portfolio, or enlarge its presence geographically.
So far, this tech stock has done an excellent job incorporating acquisitions into its fold. It has a development centre in Sri Lanka that helps it cost-efficiently improve and integrate the software it acquires. This is a major competitive edge that supports better margins.
This tech stock has delivered and could keep doing so ahead
VitalHub has delivered great results for shareholders. While its stock is down 9% this year, it is up 235% over the past five years. In that time, revenues have grown by a 51% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR). Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) have risen by a 77% CAGR.
After a couple of equity raises, VitalHub is sitting with over $100 million of cash to deploy. It is in a solid position to continue growing via acquisition.
The Foolish takeaway
VitalHub may never hit a market cap of $286 billion like Shopify. However, if it can smartly deploy its capital at elevated rates of return and continue to expand its market share, it is still possible for its stock price to increase several times over. It already has a global presence but give it time and this Canadian tech stock could become a global leader in niche healthcare software.
