Xero and Intuit follow up

Xero recently published its half year report, so it is time to update our figures. The following table summarises the salient metrics:

	2014	2015	2016	1H2017
Revenue	143m	207m	295m	187m
COGS	30%	24%	23%	20%
R & D	50%	48%	41%	49%
General	20%	15%	13%	11%
Marketing	75%	72%	56%	38%
Total	175%	159%	133%	118%

Once again, the figures are headed in the right direction. Although the company announced operating cash flow positive, adding in the impact of capitalised R & D still resulted in cash burn of $34m, leaving roughly $84m left in the bank, implying a steady runrate of just over 1 year. 

As a matter of comparison, let's look at Intuit's 2017 metrics:

Revenue USD$5.18 billion up 10% from 2016 (note: XRO growth is much higher)
COGS 15.6% of revenue
R & D 19% of revenue
General 10.7% of revenue
Marketing 27.4% of revenue
Total 72.7% of revenue (versus 74% for 2016)
Operating cashflow= $1.6 billion

The current market cap for XRO is roughly NZ$4.6 billion (a rise of nearly 45% since my last update). Still too rich for my taste. As a matter of comparison, Intuit's market cap is currently USD$39 billion.