Viridien (VIRI.PA)
Fundamental analysis
Viridien Société, formerly CGG, is a French company engaged in geoengineering, measuring seismic activity and finding and solving challenging geological problems mainly related to mineral extraction.
It was founded in 1931 and is based in Massy, France, a suburb of Paris.
The company has a worldwide presence. Its original focus was the search for oil and coal deposits. This is still one of its business segments today.
The company has two segments into which it allocates its primary revenues:
– Data, Digital & Energy Transition (DDE) – under the Earth Data and Geoscience (GEO) segments.
– Sensing & Monitoring (SMO)
The company is currently focusing on restructuring the SMO segment.
Viridien has revenues of approx. €1bn for the last 5 years. Viridien’s turnover is growing mainly in the Geoscience sub-segment. At the same time, the GEO sub-segment has managed to fill its order backlog from 184mn Euro in 2023 to 351mn Euro in 2024. This sub-segment has a chance for a decent turnover in 2025 as well.
Over the last 12 months, the share price has risen by 72%.
The market capitalization is 480 million Euro.
The PE is 73.
Results
EBITDA for 2024 is $516 million, sales are $1.2 billion. Net income is $51 million.
Overall, the company increased new orders by 33%, beating its own target of 30%.
Net cash flow is USD 56 million.
The company reduced its debt by USD 50 million to USD 921 million.
The GEO sub-segment thrived, with sales +20% versus 2023.
On the other hand, the SMO segment has lower turnover of 27% as it did not reach any «mega crew» orders in 2024.
Technical analysis
Volume of the stock is around 100,000 shares traded per day.
According to the current direction of the moving averages, the stock is in an uptrend. The stock has been rising since the beginning of the year.
There was a stock split of 1:100 in the middle of last year.
Due to several rapid price increases, the RSI is repeatedly in the overbought zone.
Resistance is at around 63 euros per share and 80 euros per share.
Conclusion
Veridian is a fairly specific company with a specific but global focus. The Geoscience sub-segment is becoming the main driver of the company’s turnover. Revenues are stable, as is net income.
At the same time, Veridian belongs to the European stocks, which have performed much better than the US stocks since the beginning of the year.
Technically speaking, the share price has undergone a solid rise over the past year. Still, its price is not expensive in absolute terms. The stock is only worth around 60 euros. But the PE is 73. That marks a high value. The stock itself is more volatile, it has experienced big ups and downs in the past.
If the moving averages stay in an uptrend and the stock hits resistance at 63 euros, it could even rise to the next resistance at 80 euros. However, if the resistance at 63 euros holds and the moving averages cross back to the downside, the price could fall.