There's been another stellar performance across the range of turnover, profits and dividend from Abcam as strong demand for its online catalogue of antibodies, proteins and peptides for research fuelled underlying sales growth of 23 per cent.
Trading since June has been good, but Mike Redmond ends his first full year as Abcam's chairman with the warning that public sector cuts by many governments in the west may restrain spending on research, and this already seems evident in the UK. Nevertheless, the overall picture remains encouraging.
In North America, the largest market with over 40 per cent of sales, Abcam recently opened an office in San Francisco and plans to broaden its footprint further. Sales in Europe increased by around a fifth, and by 15 per cent in the UK, Abcam's most mature market.
But the main growth story is the far east, where sales in Japan jumped 40 per cent. The story's even stronger from the push into China out of Hong Kong, and sales there grew over 60 per cent. Abcam has also increased the number of products on offer by a fifth, mostly antibodies but also reagents and proteins.
Brokers expect to upgrade its 2011 estimates by 5 per cent to give pre-tax profits of £31.2m and EPS of 63.3p.
ABCAM (ABC) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 1,660p | MARKET VALUE: | £597m | |
| TOUCH: | 1,658-1,662p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,710p | LOW: 720p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.2% | PE RATIO: | 31 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 148p | NET CASH: | £40.2m | |
| Year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 19.4 | 4.8 | 10.7 | 2.7 |
| 2007 | 24.5 | 5.5 | 11.7 | 4.0 |
| 2008 | 36.6 | 8.0 | 16.9 | 5.6 |
| 2009 | 56.8 | 16.3 | 34.8 | 12.1 |
| 2010 | 71.1 | 25.8 | 53.8 | 20.0 |
| % change | +25 | +58 | +55 | +65 |
Ex-div: 3 Nov Payment: 26 Nov | ||||
