With government reforms pushing for more information sharing within the NHS, electronic patient records software specialist EMIS looks well placed – despite wider austerity pressures. Indeed, its newly launched cloud-based offering, Web GP, is now used by 450 GP practices with a further 1,851 systems on order – most of which will be installed this year. But the shares are expensively rated, leaving those prospects looking factored in.
Much of 2011 was spent building capacity to fulfil demand for Web GP and, with that in place, the group expects Web GP to be rolled out into 200 practices per month by the final quarter of 2012. Moreover, demand for the system is offsetting continued weakness in hardware sales, which slipped 1 per cent year-on-year to £21.4m. Still, the core software licence and support sales operation – where revenues are recurring in nature – saw sales rise 20 per cent to £61.1m and now generates 83 per cent of the group total. Encouragingly, £21.4m of revenue was generated from RX Systems, the pharmacy systems business acquired in August. RX has also increased its share of the high street pharmacy market to 34 per cent, from 25 per cent previously.
Numis Securities expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £22.3m for 2012, giving EPS of 27.9p (£20.7m and 26.3p in 2011).
EMIS (EMIS) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 480p | MARKET VALUE: | £281m | |
| TOUCH: | 48-505p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 586p | LOW: 396p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.6% | PE RATIO: | 17 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 87p* | NET CASH: | £8m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 57.7 | 14.5 | 19.9 | nil |
| 2010 | 61.9 | 18.1 | 23.3 | 11.2 |
| 2011 | 73.2 | 21.4 | 28.7 | 12.4 |
| % change | +18 | +18 | +23 | +11 |
Ex-div: 11 Apr Payment: 30 Apr *Includes intangible assets of £50.5m, or 86p a share | ||||
