Stifel reiterates ‘Buy’ with 9.6p price target

Following on from the news that VW has started production in China, with Seeing Machines DMS and OMS tech in Magna’s rearview mirror, Stifel has reiterated its 9.6p price target and confirms SEE as one of its top picks.

In a flash note issued today, Stifel analyst Peter McNally wrote:

“The significance to us is that production is happening on time. As we heard at the Townhall event earlier this year, Seeing Machines was expecting the start of production of a number of programmes this year with one significant one over the summer (which we believe happened on time) and a second larger one later in the year. So, the announcement is good news that it is starting toward the early part of calendar Q4.

“We also note that this is for both DMS and OMS which typically indicates better ASP than DMS alone. We see this as a positive development as the company approaches its target of run-rate cash flow break-even by the end of the year.

“We don’t think this announcement has anything to do with the Magna loan but is purely signaling that the production ramp is starting on time. We should be getting fiscal Q2 KPIs in the next couple of weeks. The company remains one of our top picks at 14.4x FY26E EV/EBITDA. Buy.”

It should be remembered that current broker estimates don’t include estimates for revenue from sales in China, so I’m expecting broker upgrades in due course.

The writer holds stock in Seeing Machines.

Magna confirms Seeing Machines mirror winning OEMs

In its Q3 earning update on 31 October Magna confirmed that its DMS/OMS rearview mirror with Seeing Machines technology is being launched into additional car manufacturers aside from Volkwswagen.

The Magna CEO Seetarama Kotagiri stated in his investor overview last Friday that “…in advanced safety, our mirror integrated driver and occupant monitoring system is meeting growing global demand for DMS technologies.

As you may recall, this product earned a 2024 Automotive News PACE Award for its innovation and safety impact. We are launching this system with multiple customers worldwide and volumes are expected to reach several million units annually.”

This is encouraging news as we await the latest set of KPIs from Seeing Machines this week. I expect them to confirm its lead in automotive and growing traction in sales of Guardian Gen 3, while we wait for some huge contracts in the latter. 

Indeed, while Smart Eye has only now hit 3m cars on the road with its tech, Seeing Machines is set to speed past 4m, on the way to 5m by the end of the year.

Toyota 

The news last week of progress in Japan, with an OEM that I believe is Toyota, failed to make much impact on the share price. I found that surprising as the engineering work on this cutting edge interior monitoring system (featuring both DMS and OMS) will generate not insignificant revenues, industry estimates vary from $4-5m.

Of course, much more significant is the near certainty that this Advanced Development Project will lead to a very large contract from this OEM in the first half of 2026.

That contract alone will increase the price any acquirer will eventually have to pay for Seeing Machines.

The writer holds stock in Seeing Machines.