It's been a busy old time at the ballot box recently which has been no bad thing for public voting and information management specialist Idox (IDOX). The group's largest division, public sector software (PSS), provides managed services to local councils during elections. Revenue here was up by a fifth to £20.5m, thanks in part to an 86 per cent increase in election revenues in the period. The group has delivered the Scottish eCount project, May local elections and preparation work on the EU referendum, with the majority of revenue from the plebiscite on EU membership due in the second half.
Overall, PSS won 81 new contracts in the period, which measures up impressively against the 240 it secured in the past three years. Organic revenue growth was complemented by two acquisitions made in the 2015 financial year, Reading Room and Cloud Amber - both of which are now fully integrated and winning new contracts.
Pleasingly, the turnaround efforts in the engineering business have started to come to fruition. The division - which had previously dragged on group revenue and profit growth - has seen sales increase 10 per cent to £6.8m. A whopping 14 percentage point increase in adjusted cash margins has resulted in a sevenfold boost in adjusted cash profits.
Broker finnCap expects full-year adjusted pre-tax profits of £18.8m for the year to October 2016, leading to EPS of 3.8p (from £14.9m and 3.1p in FY2015).
IDOX (IDOX) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 66.3p | MARKET VALUE: | £238m | |
| TOUCH: | 65.3-66.3p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 67p | LOW: 37p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.3% | PE RATIO: | 20 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 16p* | NET DEBT: | 24% | |
| Half-year to 30 Apr | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 29.6 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 0.33 |
| 2016 | 37.2 | 6.5 | 1.7 | 0.35 |
| % change | +26 | +114 | +163 | +8 |
Ex-div: 6 Oct Payment: 19 Oct *Includes intangible assets of £74m, or 21p a share | ||||
