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WTC: Ongoing Revenue Model Transition Will Drive Long-Term Opportunity

Published
09 Feb 25
Updated
03 Nov 25
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AnalystConsensusTarget's Fair Value
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1Y
-44.8%
7D
-6.5%

Author's Valuation

AU$119.1243.3% undervalued intrinsic discount

AnalystConsensusTarget Fair Value

Last Update 03 Nov 25

Fair value Decreased 0.47%

WiseTech Global’s analyst price target has been reduced marginally from A$119.68 to A$119.12. This adjustment reflects analysts’ caution amid ongoing uncertainties about new product adoption and changes to the company’s revenue model.

Analyst Commentary

Analysts remain divided on WiseTech Global’s near-term prospects, as recent research underscores both growth opportunities and key challenges tied to the company’s evolving strategy. The discussion around valuation and execution has become more nuanced due to the company’s updated product and revenue models.

Bullish Takeaways

  • Bullish analysts continue to highlight WiseTech’s leadership in global logistics software and the scale of its CargoWise platform as positive differentiators in a competitive landscape.
  • There is optimism that, over the longer term, new product initiatives will drive additional revenue streams once adoption gains momentum.
  • Structural industry drivers, including the digitization of supply chains and increasing regulatory requirements, are seen as supportive of sustained demand for WiseTech’s solutions.

Bearish Takeaways

  • Bearish analysts point to uncertainty surrounding the adoption rate of recently launched products. This may impact short to medium-term growth expectations.
  • Concerns have been raised over the shift to a transaction-only revenue model. Some view this transition as introducing greater unpredictability to earnings visibility and revenue forecasts.
  • The recent downward revision in price targets reflects macroeconomic headwinds and a more cautious stance on WiseTech’s ability to deliver on its fiscal 2026 guidance.

What's in the News

  • RBC Capital downgraded WiseTech to Sector Perform from Outperform and lowered its price target to A$120 from A$130, citing uncertainty around new product adoption and the switch to a transaction-only revenue model (RBC Capital).
  • WiseTech Global is seeking merger and acquisition opportunities to boost growth and enhance product development capabilities, as noted by CEO Zubin Appoo during the company's full year 2025 results briefing (Full Year 2025 Results Briefing).
  • WiseTech Global announced an estimated distribution of USD 0.077 per share for the six months ending June 30, 2025, with a record date of September 15 and payment scheduled for October 10, 2025 (Company Announcement).

Valuation Changes

  • Consensus Analyst Price Target: Decreased marginally from A$119.68 to A$119.12.
  • Discount Rate: Rose slightly from 7.99% to 8.00%.
  • Revenue Growth Forecast: Edged down from 35.65% to 35.55%.
  • Net Profit Margin: Fell modestly from 24.91% to 24.75%.
  • Future P/E Ratio: Increased slightly from 66.78x to 67.51x.

Key Takeaways

  • Adoption of unified, AI-driven SaaS solutions and strategic acquisitions are driving deeper market penetration, new revenue streams, and higher customer retention.
  • Industry digitization trends and ongoing product innovation position WiseTech for accelerated growth, enhanced profitability, and operating leverage.
  • Slowing organic growth, integration challenges, pricing model shifts, new tech competition, and increased leverage raise risks to WiseTech's revenue, margins, and long-term stability.

Catalysts

About WiseTech Global
    Engages in the development and provision of software solutions to the logistics execution industry in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
What are the underlying business or industry changes driving this perspective?
  • The rollout of the new unified, transaction-based CargoWise commercial model (the "Value Pack"), which removes seat-based pricing and bundles advanced AI-driven workflow and management engines, is expected to accelerate market penetration, reduce adoption friction, and open the SME market, resulting in significant recurring revenue uplift and higher customer retention as user engagement scales with transaction volumes.
  • WiseTech's strategic acquisition and integration of E2open has immediately increased the company's addressable market (now covering the full global supply chain), enables deep product and operational synergies, and accelerates WiseTech's entry into new segments; this positions the company for outsized revenue growth and operating leverage from cost and product rationalization over time.
  • The industry-wide push for supply chain digitization, automation, and advanced logistics optimization-fueled post-pandemic by demands for resilience, efficiency, and transparency-continues to drive strong adoption of WiseTech's mission-critical SaaS solutions, increasing both net profit margins and long-term revenue through deepening integrations with major global logistics providers.
  • Launch and expansion of breakthrough products such as Container Transport Optimization (CTO), now enhanced by E2open's container data and partnerships like ACFS, are expected to unlock entirely new revenue streams and margin expansion by providing high-value, end-to-end, automated optimization for large-scale logistics operators, with global rollout likely in FY26 and beyond.
  • Ongoing, intensive R&D investment-much of it increasingly AI-enabled-combined with demonstrated operating leverage and cost efficiency initiatives, positions WiseTech to deliver scalable EBITDA and net earnings growth as revenue rises and fixed-cost SaaS delivery amplifies margin upside over the long term.

WiseTech Global Earnings and Revenue Growth

WiseTech Global Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

How have these above catalysts been quantified?
  • Analysts are assuming WiseTech Global's revenue will grow by 35.8% annually over the next 3 years.
  • Analysts assume that profit margins will shrink from 25.8% today to 25.0% in 3 years time.
  • Analysts expect earnings to reach $486.9 million (and earnings per share of $1.45) by about September 2028, up from $200.7 million today. However, there is a considerable amount of disagreement amongst the analysts with the most bullish expecting $561 million in earnings, and the most bearish expecting $409.6 million.
  • In order for the above numbers to justify the analysts price target, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 69.5x on those 2028 earnings, down from 102.3x today. This future PE is greater than the current PE for the AU Software industry at 33.4x.
  • Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to decline by 0.1% per year for the next 3 years.
  • To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 7.97%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

WiseTech Global Future Earnings Per Share Growth

WiseTech Global Future Earnings Per Share Growth

Risks

What could happen that would invalidate this narrative?
  • WiseTech's organic growth in key existing markets is showing signs of deceleration (CargoWise CAGR has dropped from 33% to 31%, with noted "lower organic revenue growth in FY '25 from product delays"), raising the risk that future topline growth will increasingly rely on M&A rather than core expansion, which could pressure long-term revenue consistency and predictability.
  • The integration of E2open-a similarly sized company-brings significant complexity and operational risk, including multi-year phases, $45–$50 million in one-off costs in FY '26, uncertainty around further required investment, and the potential for ongoing margin pressure due to cost overruns and difficulties aligning systems and cultures, which could dilute net margins and earnings.
  • WiseTech's shifted commercial model (moving away from seat-based pricing to all-inclusive per-transaction pricing) in response to AI-driven automation may negatively impact revenue per customer, particularly among larger customers that realize headcount efficiencies faster than their transaction volumes grow, possibly slowing revenue growth if new transaction volumes do not offset unit price compression.
  • There is heightened risk from emerging technology competitors offering AI-driven or cloud-native, open-source logistics solutions, which could commoditize the industry and erode WiseTech's pricing power and differentiation, potentially impacting both customer retention rates and gross margins in the long run.
  • The substantial new debt facility ($3 billion syndicated facility, $2.4 billion drawn for E2open) increases financial leverage and exposes WiseTech to higher interest expenses and refinancing risk; any shortfall in expected M&A synergies or delays in revenue/margin uplift could adversely affect net profit and limit flexibility for future investments.

Valuation

How have all the factors above been brought together to estimate a fair value?
  • The analysts have a consensus price target of A$124.731 for WiseTech Global based on their expectations of its future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors. However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of A$195.74, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just A$82.08.
  • In order for you to agree with the analyst's consensus, you'd need to believe that by 2028, revenues will be $2.0 billion, earnings will come to $486.9 million, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 69.5x, assuming you use a discount rate of 8.0%.
  • Given the current share price of A$94.8, the analyst price target of A$124.73 is 24.0% higher.
  • We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.

How well do narratives help inform your perspective?

Disclaimer

AnalystConsensusTarget is a tool utilizing a Large Language Model (LLM) that ingests data on consensus price targets, forecasted revenue and earnings figures, as well as the transcripts of earnings calls to produce qualitative analysis. The narratives produced by AnalystConsensusTarget are general in nature and are based solely on analyst data and publicly-available material published by the respective companies. These scenarios are not indicative of the company's future performance and are exploratory in nature. Simply Wall St has no position in the company(s) mentioned. Simply Wall St may provide the securities issuer or related entities with website advertising services for a fee, on an arm's length basis. These relationships have no impact on the way we conduct our business, the content we host, or how our content is served to users. The price targets and estimates used are consensus data, and do not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and they do not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Note that AnalystConsensusTarget's analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

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