The huge number of transactions conducted online represents an obvious boon for digital payment companies. Worldpay (WPG), London's biggest flotation of 2015, responded to this favourable backdrop and rising competition last year by deepening its relationships with customers, gaining licences in new countries and developing innovative products - including analytics tool Your Marketplace in the UK.
Solid progress in executing its strategy resulted in a 14 per cent increase in total billing transaction numbers, to 15bn, despite a technical outage delaying millions of payments last summer. The key driver of this impressive performance, which brought the total value of transactions up 12 per cent to £451bn, was the group's e-commerce division, Global eCom, which serves multinationals across 146 countries and 126 currencies. Transactions there surged 30 per cent to 5bn, thanks partly to the boost from non-sterling trading following the Brexit vote.
On the flipside, Worldpay's strategy failed to make sufficient headway in the US. Net revenues there climbed just 2 per cent at constant currencies, a disappointing result that management partly blamed on lower activity from energy companies. That looked to have dented the shares in early trading.
Broker Cenkos expects adjusted EPS of 13p in 2017, from pre-tax profits of £344m, up from 11.5p in 2016.
| WORLDPAY (WPG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 280p | MARKET VALUE: | £5.60bn | |
| TOUCH: | 280-281p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 321p | LOW: 248p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 0.7% | PE RATIO: | 42 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 42p* | NET DEBT: | 164% | |
| Year to Dec 31 | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 3.08 | -73.2 | na | nil |
| 2013 | 3.38 | -198 | na | nil |
| 2014** | 3.63 | -47.1 | -3.1 | nil |
| 2015† | 3.96 | 19.1 | -1.8 | nil |
| 2016 | 4.54 | 264 | 6.6 | 2.0 |
| % change | +15 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: 25 May Payment: 27 Jun *Includes intangible assets of £2.2bn, or 108p a share †Worldpay listed in October 2015 **Pro forma figures | ||||
