Investors sent shares in Idox (IDOX) up 6 per cent after it revealed an 11 per cent rise in adjusted cash profit for the year to 31 October. Double-digit sales growth in the key public sector software division, together with cost-cutting in the weaker engineering business, allowed the document-management software group to widen its adjusted cash-profit margin by 2.1 percentage points to 29.1 per cent.
Idox continued to benefit from the budgetary pressures on local governments that have fuelled sales of its planning systems, election management software and workflow tools. It signed up 14 local councils, including Plymouth and Swansea, meaning it now counts 92 per cent of local authorities among its customers. It also made two acquisitions: Reading Room - a data analysis, web design and social media consultancy - and Cloud Amber, which helps cities to improve their traffic management and fleet managers to run more efficiently.
The weak spot was the engineering business: sales slumped 21 per cent as a recovery in energy and industrial markets failed to materialise. But management acted quickly to reduce costs, lessening the impact on profit.
Broker finnCap expects EPS of 3.8p (from 3.1p in FY2015).
| IDOX (IDOX) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 47.9p | MARKET VALUE: | £170m | |
| TOUCH: | 47.3-48.5p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 48p | LOW: 35p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.8% | PE RATIO: | 22 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 15p* | NET DEBT: | 43% | |
| Year to 31 Oct | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 38.6 | 5.6 | 1.3 | 0.60 |
| 2012 | 55.4 | 7.9 | 2.2 | 0.68 |
| 2013 | 57.3 | 7.5 | 2.4 | 0.70 |
| 2014 | 60.7 | 7.6 | 1.7 | 0.75 |
| 2015 | 62.6 | 9.8 | 2.2 | 0.85 |
| % change | +3 | +29 | +34 | +13 |
Ex-div: 7 Apr Payment: 22 Apr *Includes intangible assets of £74.8m, or 21p a share | ||||
