Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat: Sierra Wireless—buy, sell or hold? Please advise.

Article Excerpt

Sierra Wireless, $23.45, symbol SW on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 30.8 million; Market cap: $721.4 million; www.sierrawireless.com), makes modules that manufacturers use to connect products to the Internet, with an estimated 34% of this market. Web-connected products can be remotely monitored—and potentially fixed—before they cause a major breakdown. For example, Sierra’s modules let doctors remotely monitor patients and help homeowners use their smartphones to control their home-security systems. They also help car owners send out distress signals while notifying automakers of possible defects. Sierra’s automotive customers include Chrysler and Toyota. Other clients include Nestle SA, which uses Sierra’s equipment to maintain and monitor its Nespresso coffee machines in restaurants, hotels and offices. Smart electricity meter makers, like Elster, EDMI, Itron and Schneider Electric, also use Sierra’s modules to connect their products to the Internet. In late 2013, Sierra bought the module business of South Korea’s AnyData Corp. for $5.9 million. It also acquired the machine-to-machine communication operations of France’s Sagemcom SAS for 44.9…