Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLKB)

Blackbaud, Inc. founded in 1981 in South Carolina, is a market leaders in providing software and related services to non-profit organizations. The company has three core software applications: The Raiser's Edge, The Financial Edge and The Education Edge. The Raiser’s Edge is its best performing application, contributing over 60% to the revenue tally. Blackbaud segregates its operational revenues into five key segments: License fees; Services; Maintenance; Subscriptions; and Other revenue. The Maintenance segment that includes annual fees derived from maintenance contracts associated with new software licenses and annual renewals of existing maintenance contracts provides the major chunk of over 40% of the total inflows.

Non-profit organizations are seeing continued growth, with over 1.5 million registered U.S non profit organizations. The donations that are supposedly the lifeblood of such entities have also seen a robust growth, rising at over 7.5% in the past ten years and crossing the $250 billion mark. However, the cost associated with acquiring donations is quite high; where the organizations spend about 24 cents of every dollar on the procurement process. Companies like Blackbaud aid in reducing the cost as well as generating additional donations.

Blackbaud is currently witnessing mixed results, though its revenue have seen a strong double-digit growth in last quarter; net income also rising to a similar feet led by high performance of licenses and services segments. However, its stock observed a significant dip guided by fall in subscription segment and company’s acquisition of Target Software and Analytics for $62 million, leading to speculations about Blackbaud’s margins.

Looking ahead, Blackbaud could see continued growth as it only caters to just about 5% of the total addressable market. Moreover company’s strong cash flow, its new Galileo product range and high switching cost associated with the existing users, makes it a healthy investment. Further, the Target acquisition will aid in enhancing its product line, while possible synergies could improve the margins, making Blackbaud’s a strong stock at current level.

Growth in Nonprofit sector and need for nonprofit management systems will drive demand for services and products that Blackbaud provids.

This company owns the underserved and underpenetrated not-for-profit industry, with their industry leading Raiser's Edge product. I installed and used the product as a Director of Development at a non-profit and can't say enough about both the quality of the product but also the wisdom of their business model. They've designed nice, bite-size, modular offers that can be easily justified financially by tight-pocketed non-profits. These guys are on a path to either be purchased at a premium or continue to expand their offerings to take more and more of the non-profit IT pie.

http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2011/12/20/dividend-payers-in-technology.aspx

Ultra-niche player. Blackbaud provides software and services specificially for non-profits. A fragmented market with heavily manual processes, mean the growth opportunity is substantial.

Its a gem

Blackbaud captures its offline space well, but how long can it perform in a market that demands online transactions and community? Their online CRM is weak compared to the other CRMs that service nonprofits online. It's too bad. Blackbaud was in a strong position early to capture the nonprofit CRM market.

Special focus product technology and after market support sales that will offer significant cost savings to non-profit overhea

Strong market share. Excellent execution hopefully continues.

BLKB is well managed and positioned in its niche market - providing software and services for non-profit orginazations. The increasing demand in this growing market bodes well for the longterm prospects of Blackbaud.

The acquisition of the TARGET companies was a good move. This gives them the lion's share of the non-profit market and adds product coverage in areas they were lagging.

First, a disclosure - I work for this company. BLKB is the leader in the nonprofit technology industry, with best-of-breed product offerings for its core veritcals and exciting opportunities for expansion through recent acquisitions and emerging products. BLKB is prospering despite the current downturn in the economy, which normally crimps charitable donations. Nonprofit spending will likely pick up once the economy rights itself, which should mean huge growth for this company.

I'm new at this... I don't really have a clue what I'm doing, but I'm hoping David Gardner does. I'm picking Blackbaud because he picked it as a Rule Breaker.

Steady price growth based on dependable financials.

Niche monopoly, end of story.

Buy low, sell high, right? Their stock fell due to a downgrade and the

With Global Warming starting every news story and charities springing up to battle it and poverty and every other headline humanity problem, this company will have bigger and bigger business as time goes.

Getting major customers for CRM everyday. Way ahead of competition

Senior management is not connected to day to day operations and too many acquisitions have not been accretive to earnings. The company continues to invest in the business with no meaningful improvement in margins. Are we just waiting for the music to end?